Digital BW, The Print

I have purchased a 4000 and hope to get in in January from 
Inkjetart.  Meanwhile, I'm trying to get my ducks in line.  I 
currenty have a XP system but am thinking  of adding a dual boot 
Linux system so I can use Roy Harrington's QTR.  With 8 ink channels 
(7 plus 1 spare)including Photo Black, Matt Black and Light Black it 
appears ideal for use as both a color and BW (using the spare channel 
as another black shade. I am assuming that Roy will support the 4000 
in the near future (I hope).

Have got a bunch of questions:
     1.  Which is the best Linux distrubution?
     2.  Will there be a Linux gimp print driver for the 4000?
     3.  Can I upgrade XP Photoshop 7 to Linux Photoshop CS or do I 
have to buy a new Linus PS?
     4.  Does what I'm thinking make sense to for a dual BW/color 
workflow?
     5.  What problems can I anticipate?

By the way I have about 50 years darkroom experience and 40 years 
with computer so I think I can handle a reasonable challange but do 
not want to spend a lot of time to get a working system debugged so 
if this approach does not make sense I would like to know.

Thanks

George P