Ask HN: Which Distro and Why?

[brudgers]

Need some collective wisdom.

I am preparing to install Linux as an alternative bootable OS on my main computer alongside Windows 8.1.

The iron is older but still very capable:

    Dell Precision T7400
    2x E5405 Xeon [Harpertown]
    Video: Nvidia Quadro FX 1700
    Two Displays with different Native resolutions
    12GB RAM ECC
    RAID 1 [mirroring] using onboard Dell Virtual Disk 

The considerations for the Distribution:

[] Reasonably straight forward installation and configuration for my hardware including X11. Bleeding edge not important. Reasonable robustness is.

[] I plan to use Linux for programming. Comprehensive package support for programming languages and development tools is important. I don't need MSOffice knock-offs or lots of multimedia applications, or games, etc. Right now, the plan is mainly Emacs from the desktop.

[] Other considerations being roughly equivalent, leaner is better.

[] Other considerations being equivalent, more GNU is better than less GNU.

[] FHS definately. LSB other considerations being equivalent.

[] LFS/BLFS are for another day.

[] Critical mass supporting the distro.

[] Plan to use Windows Boot Manger to maintain existing stability. Might change it down the road, but I don't boot often enough to be bothered by Windows 8's slower process.

Thanks for your help.

[brudgers]

This is why these questions get asked on Stack Overflow.

[kristianp → brudgers]

Actually superuser might be better, or the one for admins.

[brudgers → kristianp]

The question does not meet their guidelines either...and that was the gist of my comment.