Hey folks. I know some of you are probably tired of "Which distro is best" threads, but I'm looking for something just a bit more specific. I'm gonna be buying my first brand new computer (!) in 8 years next week. Up till now, I've been surviving on Franken-systems made up of bits and pieces of whatever I could scrounge. Now I'm finally in a position to put together my dream machine. I'm ordering it specially made from scratch with all hand-picked components, but I don't want to pick something that's going to have zero support. I have no clue what brands for the latest hardware are best to buy for Linux (or BSD, I haven't decided on the OS yet either) compatibility. There seem to be several more brands since the last time I bought a computer!

I've got two questions: "What do you all think is the distribution with the best support for the newest hardware?", and "What hardware manufacturers have been pretty dedicated to the Linux/BSD community?" For example, I've got my eye on a GeForce FX card, but I haven't found it on any of the major hardware compatibility lists, yet. I'm sure it will be supported in the very near future, but which chipset manufacturer would be the best bet for future compatibility (MSI, Gainward, etc)? Any advice I could get would be greatly appreciated!