hd3850 questions

[Kano]

Kanotix Hellfire would allow you to install 10-7 too.

[Mr James]

Debian.

Beware: thier forums is not for the faint of heart.

[L33F3R]

Debian.

Beware: thier forums is not for the faint of heart.

spoken as a wise man would.

[evolution]

Debian is a nice lightweight distro... although their "Open-Source" philosophy is a bit too radical...
I'd suggest you to try Chakra Linux (they have a test live cd if you want here), if you already have some knowledgement of Linux.

Otherwise, maybe Kano's debian-based distro might be a nice solution (debian also uses apt-get ), and maybe Kano can help you sometimes with Kanotix...

Cheers and Merry Xmas!