linux security vs userfriendly

Aight, here´s my thought. When I get broadband I´d like to set up my old 200MMX closest to the wall with linux and some nifty firewall and then a switch for a lan in the apartment. (just to try it out)
And here comes that old question again. :D
What flavour do I want?
The only one I´ve ever seen is Mandrake 8.1 and I was impressed with the easy installation. But thinking abit further (wooo)
What flavour(s) has an easy to use security feature and/or have a nifty firewall built in? And what version, or should I go for the latest one? (new verssions need more patching right and considering I´m not al that good getting around to patch my OS)
And another thing I´ve been wondering. Which one has the least patches because of the coding was good?

I had ran a web site for about three years that dealt strictly with building your own Linux based firewall -- Then, it was a matter of eaither stripping down an existing version or building your own from scratch (both had their good and bad points).

Today, I would recommend going with a dedicated Linux based firewall package such as SmoothWall www.smoothwall.org - SNF (single network firewall) by Mandrake www.mandrake.com or SuSE's new entry... SuSE Firewall or somthing like that? www.suse.com

These are small, offer easy web based configuration, secure access and all the things you need (packet filtering, routing, DNS, proxies and stuff).

... Of course, you can always hack away at your own version!

HIH

If you need a simple, easy to use, small Linux gateway that works really well the load clarkconnect at www.clarkconnect.net.

It's about 100 Meg install with a firewall,webcache, NAT, etc. etcIt's quite secure, very litlle if any administration and it'll load via FTp on a blank PC with just booting with a floppy.
Throughput on my lil' P200 w/64MB RAM is outstanding, even when I have 6 people gaming. Plus they have a dynamic DNS deal that's worth it.

Hope that helps.

sorry it's www.clarkconnect.org not .net

Go with the latest version, sure new patches will be required, but new versions fix all the known holes of previous versions. either way you gotta patch, but the yet to be discovered holes arn't already in the hands of the kiddies.

Thanks alot for the answers, I took a look at clarkconnect and it seems fine. I´m going for that one when I get the connection. Now for the patching of the clarkconnect. It´s based on Red Hat, do I use ordinary Red Hat patches (with the patches on the page) or just the patches found on CC´s page?

CC should have patches. Although I haven't messed around with patching it.
My mom always said "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Usually I'd fix it anyway, but now I've learned.