Linux.com

I'm a fan of Debian overall, since with the net-install options, and the Debian repositories, you can pretty much build your computer into whatever you want it to be.

I use Debian on all my servers. Debian is very stable because of all the testing they do, and their slower release cycle.

You should be able to install all of the main stream programming packages you need for major languages (C, C++, Perl, PHP, Python, etc.) through the standard Debian repositories.

I use Debian on my home desktop. Debian is good for desktop because you can easily make it into what /you/ want it to be. However, if you are a Linux newbie I'd recommend Ubuntu or Mandriva, as they come with solid GUIs out of the box, and are pre-configured to do the things most domestic users will want to do.

Some one else will need to help you with the Multimedia Edition part.

As far as a Dreamweaver alternative, there is Nvu and Komposer, for WYSIWYG for HTML. I don't think these have some of the advanced features of Dreamweaver for scripting. But I personally think that, if you do a lot of scripting and advanced web design, you really should set up your own web server, and code and test the scripts on that server before uploading them to your site.

PerlCoder (http://www.indicium.us)