Linux distro & daemon DVE; Intel 915 PM, nVid 6600 GO aka Final Cut/Adobe Premiere

My personal opinion is, currently you wont find FCP quality editing on linux, and Adobe doesn't match to FCP IMO.

Most cameras use ieee1394a only, very few have ieee1394b, but for an external HD or raid function, I would reccomend the ieee1394b or eSATA.

Also you would be using the wrong term for the program you are looking for, a daemon is a process that is always running in the background and controls functions typically. You are just looking for a video editor. I have not played with Blender's video editor yet(On my list of things to do soon actually), Jashanka is another one to look at, as well as the CVS version of Cinelerra on linux, but none match up to FCP from what I have seen yet, or discovered on Cinelerra. Jashanka may be getting closer, and will be close on release 3, which is when I will try it, the blender editor has some interesting systems, but FCP still beats it for many things I believe, which is also why you get so many people that do their animations in Blender, but the final video editing in FCP.

In as far as WiFi, post on the linux folder, there are plenty of us there that can help you get it working if it will work in linux at all, distro doesn't really matter.

In as far as improving sound, you will get the most immediate improvement based off mic technique used while filming. If you are looking for good audio mixdown software, there is a fair amount, on Linux I HIGHLY recommend Ardour+xjadeo after you get the video editing done to do the audio work. The transfer to your computer from your camera will happen over firewire, not much you can do to improve that, so look primarily at the capture end of things(Mic Technique).

Seablade

If you are serious about video editing primarily, I would reccomend the Intel Mac solution you posted with FCP or FCE over linux atm.

Seablade