best Unix setup to do Java development - Java

Hi all,

first of all I don't want to start a flamewar. This is an honest
question regarding the best Unix setup I could use to do Java
development.

I'm working for a small Unix only Java development company, so
Windows is totally out of question (and I'm very happy with that).

I do Java development with IntelliJ IDEA 3.0.4 (JDK 1.4.1_02) under
Red Hat Linux 9.

This is on Pentium 4 with lots of Ram, serving two developers (two
remote X sessions being displayed on two different computers).

The production machines are running Solaris, btw...

The problem I have is this machine sometimes hangs for a few seconds for
no reason. This is a problem related to Red Hat Linux 9 as several people
are having the same problem. The problem is not related to Java either : this
problem happens to people using Red Hat Linux 9 without Java too.

I tried the latest Red Hat kernel for this distro : same problem.

At first I wanted to patch the kernel with the "low latency" patches, but
I found some notes from the developer of this patch explaining that
compatibility of this patch with NPTL (Native Posix Thread Library) was too
much work and would not be supported for now...

So my question is simple: is there anybody here doing Java development
on an Unix operating running on x86 hardware with everything working perfectly?

I know that the Linux Gentoo distribution is considered to be very very fast
and responsive and I could switch to Gentoo (I repeat that this is for
a development machine, not a production one) but I'd like to have some
feedback first...

What I need running flawlessly is :

- IntelliJ IDEA (cannot code without that IDE anymore)

- Tomcat

- a Web browser

So, is there anybody here using a Unix OS (BSD, Linux, Solaris, whatever) for
Java development on x86 hardware willing to share some thoughts ?

Or anyone who knows how to fix this "few seconds lockups" so many Red Hat
Linux 9 user do experience ? (I like Red Hat Linux 9 and I'll keep using
it if only I can fix this... Otherwise I'm willing to change to another
Unix OS or another Linux distro).

Thanks in advance,

Jean