Hi All,

I'm in process of switching from WinXP to Linux. What's the best Linux distribution and application software for handling audio visual stuff? I think I like Mandriva 2007 from what I read. Also, any suggestions re audio visual I/O PCI cards?

"audio visual stuff?" is an entirely vague term that means nothing. could you be a little more specific? like what you want to do and what input and output you need. All linux distros use the same kernel (more or less) so you should be able to get the same hardware and software to work on any distro (with varying amounts of work). I'm set up with 8 analog (&2 digital) audio i/o's (for a recording studio) and s-video/composite video in and out (for a little video work.) but without knowing your specifics your qestion is imposible to answer as you could be wanting to do anything from d.j.ing music for a party to making a blockbuster film (king kong for example was done entirely on fedora core.)

mandriva is a good choice to learn linux

>>re audio visual I/O PCI cards?
Have you look in the hardware database HCL of LQ

see dyne:bolic
http://lab.dyne.org/FrontPage

or distrowatch.com