I'd try one out - especially since I have to start from scratch.
My only requirements would be vid drivers working, and only apps I'd need would be Truecrypt and BOINC.
Some dude made a Linux GPU client for Collatz on BOINC... so tempted to try it... my crunching in Linux was 130% of Windows... but... all the GPU clients are Window's based except for this new one.
So if anyone I'd ask for advice on which distro to try - it would definitely be you