linux runs renoise surprisingly well, but like with all things linux, you kind of have to know what you’re doing and why you’re using it.
I’d recommend not using it if you’re only using it to tinker - you’ll be upset with the lack of options, etc.
I installed Linux a while ago just to tinker and it really wasn’t worth it. FreeDSB was my favourite distro of the four or five I tried. This was about 5 years ago so things may have changed significantly. My soundcard straight up wasn’t supported and trying to find drivers was the worst thing ever. I can’t see using Linux being beneficial unless you really know what it’s going to give you that Windows or OSX isn’t.
For the average user, it’s almost like buying a pair of pants that are really hard to get on. Why not just wear the same pants as everyone else?
I’m no wizkid, but I like to have an installation of Linux on one of my puters at all times. I started out on Debian many years ago, and fell in love with the .deb package-system. I moved onto Ubuntu, and now Mint. Mint and Ubuntu is mostly the same, and Renoise works fine on both without any ‘hacking’. I just use Linux to tinker with, but I do all my music-work in Windows, seeing as Reason and VST’s doesn’t run in Linux.
I love everything that Linux is and what it ‘stands’ for, and I hope it keeps evolving into a tool we, the sounddesigners, can work with seriously. The fact that Renoise supports Linux gives me great hope in that sence.
Linux has come a long way in the last five years. There’s a native renoise for a start! 
But yes, windows is very tempting some times, but I’m not sure about the downside of windows enough to give up linux (and I can’t afford a mac!)
I have a windows 7 pro-64 bit lying around somewhere. I have a microsoft developer account thanks to my employers (I write software in the corporate world. Call me Dilbert.) I tried it for a while last year, win7 seems pretty good. But the penguin kept nagging at me! 
I actually did a linux/windows A/B test (features, what I want from an o/s, community, etc etc) and there was nothing in it - both had strengths and weaknesses. My choice pretty much came down to where I felt comfortable.
I’ve had sweet on-going success with Renoise and Linux. I’m currently using EasyPeasy (based on Ubuntu Lucid 10.04) on an ASUS eeepc 1000HE. Runs basic beats and sketch stuff just fine and I can take it to a coffee shop. But it gaks out on more intense songs. Booting to terminal helps. I’ve also tried Crunchbang (Statler) and Renoise worked great in it, but I couldn’t get my eeepc functions to work consistantly so I abandoned #!. I’ve also used Mint 9 (based on 10.04) with LXDE instead of Gnome and that worked well too. Renoise is one of my test apps for a new Linux distro.
Linux is generally my choice for workflow and production (I use Bibble for RAW photo editing) and when I can find a music app that works (like Renoise) it makes it even more fun. But for serious music production I use my Mac.
I agree with the consensus on this thread - try Linux and Renoise if you like to play with computers, but otherwise, stick to Mac OS or Windows.
PS. for a while I was using the sample editor in Renoise instead of a 2-track editor because it’s that damn good.
//This post was really not that important, so I deleted the previous part.
It may be harder to do on Linux than on Windows or Mac OS, but Linux CAN be a professional audio platform.
Not the studio standards and blah-blah-blah, but anyway