the forbidden question: which distro...

Yes, I dare to pose the forbidden question.

Thing is, I used to use SuSE 4.x back in 1996, and since have been trying and using a whole lot of different distros, from Damn Small Linux to Arch to Ubuntu, at work or for private use.

I am getting a new Dell laptop this week. I will use it for:

- software development on the web (php, RoR, evtl. python and java)

- desktop apps (Internet surfing, emails, music listening, youtube videos, documents, etc.)

- music production (possibility arose that I could teach courses on free media production)

This are of course very conflictive usages, which actually make it impossible to choose the "right" distro.

I am tending towards ubuntu because simply put most hardware just runs. But I'm inclined towards Ubuntu Studio which would give me a multimedia studio on which I can stack my development stuff.

Or would you see any reason for not installing ubuntu studio, when I will, at least in the beginning, mostly run apache and develop in PHP and/or Ruby On Rails?

Any other suggestion?

Thanks