octave on Linux

[Control Systems Group]

I currently run octave 1.1.1 on slackware 2.3 distribution of Linux. It is
great. I am considering updating my Linux box. I have the  Info Magic 6 cd
sets which contain  slackware 3.0, Red Hat 3.0.3 (picasso) Debian 0.93 R6
etc. I understand these are all ELF distributions. Has anybody had any
experience with those distributions? The most used applications are Octave,
and Latex for me. I heard that the slackware 3.0 Ntex distribustion is broke
( could be fixed thought), so I am wondering which way to go.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Guoqiang Lu