debian

I've been a RedHat/Fedora user for a long long time, since RedHat 3 I think, and feel quite ok with it.

I've even run a few servers based on Red Hat Enterprise for more than three years when I had a web hosting business with more than five hundred domains and a lot of clients. Now I run a VPS based on CentOS 4.3, a Red Hat Enterprise cousin.

But make no mistake, even if I've had my share or rpm, yum and a few GUI based applications I'm all for source compiling and the command line.

Now I'd like to add a second Linux distribution under my wing, not for replacing my loyal Fedora desktops and CentOS server but because I'm a good 'ol geek who needs to explore.

I'll be using an Intel P4 HT box with 1Gb RAM.

I have a few friends in the Debian community and I like the way the project is run. Debian is certainly my first choice for a second distro.

My second option is Slackware, which I understand is geared to the most hardcore Linux dudes out there.

Of course I know it all depends on what I need Linux for, well, I need it for quite a lot, let's see:

• Web development: the usual vi editing for HTML, PHP, CSS and Javascript. Soon I'll start playing with some frameworks like Ruby on Rails or Django and obviously I need Apache and a RDBMS, currently MySQL.
• Graphics design: Gimp, Inkscape and Scribus.
• Some 3D fun with Blender.
• This is quite standard: the usual Firefox, Thunderbird, MP3 player and OpenOffice pack.
• When Mento Gamba wants to take a walk the Second Life client on Linux needs to run.
• This is very important: I need my Wacom Graphire 3 tablet working right, including pressure sensitivity. I can't live without that.
• I run a dual head monitor setup and my graphics card is based on an ATI x700 chipset.
• A couple of applications under Wine: Internet Explorer 6 and 7 (just for testing please, don't give me that look!) and Adobe Flash 8.
• And I'll be playing with some J2EE soon too.

What Linux distribution would you recommend as my second one?