New distro question

[Labitt, Bruce]

I realize this is / was / will be a religious argument, but I'm having
trouble with this distribution of Centos on my computer.  I was
wondering if there was a distro more up to date and was suited for
scientific calculations.

I'm familiar with FC6, due to a myth install (thanks Jarod, Ben et al)
so I would not mind installing FC8.  I'm not interested in FC9 only due
to the fact that it hasn't been released yet, and I want something
relatively stable.  I have downloaded FC8 and opensuse10.3.  Any others
I should consider?

It doesn't have to be cool, although that is ok.  It does have to be
functional and reasonably supportable.  MIS is familiar with RH stuff,
if that matters.

TIA
Bruce