It's been more than 3 years I left Linux since most of my working applications run under Windows. Now I am a Linux newbie again under Ubuntu distribution :-)
You may download some Ubuntu packages and the iso image from kambing mirror.
It seems that Mudreg likes the OS as well as I do he he he...
Anyhow I don't know yet the alternatives of these two powerful mathematics software, Mapple and Matlab that run under Linux. Currently, I can't afford to buy the two software under Linux licenses though :-(