Making a good Linux desktop has recently become reasonably straightforward; all one has to do is choose a distro which works very well and doesn't break after the first major set of updates...which, frankly, many still do. But rigorizing a Linux desktop for use in live music production, requires a tighter ship than the usual, and the challenge can be quite interesting. Helpful bits and procedures to meet these challenges and others, you will find here.
In general, I recommend Fedora Linux considerably above the others, for all purposes, as long as one has powerful hardware, dual core and 2G RAM. One core and 1G RAM is excellent in Fedora for general desktop, but as soon as the rigorous applications come, one must be more careful, and for these I strongly recommend AVLinux, for stability, speed, utility, and the fact that it achieves these things while being very up-to-date in applications and APIs. AVLinux is 32-bit only at this time, but its performance is excellent nonetheless, and it can be shocking how well and often it Just Plain Works. If one wishes to roll one's own a bit more than AVLinux, I recommend the LXDE branch of Debian Testing, which is whence AVLinux hath come. There is now an LXDE variant of Fedora out there, and I can sense that I will be testing that one sometime in the near future 
For the curious: my purpose is the Kingdom of God. It is not a church, it is not a denomination, and it is not a rigid-minded bondage of the mind. It is very good indeed. The first step can be found here, among many other places on and off the Web.
Have a great day!
J.E.B.
jeb@joshuacorps.org
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