pre-newbie ibook quicksilver opengl graphics-cards sound

[ccos]

hello all,

thinking seriously about going over to linux from os x.
the more i learn about unix and programming the more appealing
this option. i've been perusing the net for a while looking for a good 
distro
for a total linux newbie, and yellow dog seems to be the one.

i have these two machines:

ibook ( i think it's a 2 ) 600MHz dual w/ an ATY RageM3p29s graphics card

G4 867 (QS) w/ an NVDA GForce 2 MX card

and these questions in regards to both machines:

sound - how is the support for the native hardware?
are there drivers out there for multi channel cards at all?
for instance, in my g4 i've got a motu pci_324 and 2408MKII.

midi - is there anything like os x integrated midi support?
are there drivers out there for midi interfaces?
for instance, i've got an emagic unitor8.

graphics - how well does YD support opengl and hardware acceleration.
how well does it support my graphics cards.

i'm mostly programming opengl and sound in C, and i need
to know how well i will fare in these two areas with YD.
os x does a farely good job with multimedia, but i'm looking
for a more flexible, more powerfull, and less glossy (read "corporate") 
system.

thanks much,
c

p.s. any good IDE's ship with YD?
anybody using NextStep Project Builder Successfully?