I asked about this when I originally set my first irlp node up and was 
told I needed their special distrobution as they make some specific 
changes.  I suppose it could be made to work with other distros, but you'd 
really have to know your Linux, and you may not get support from the tech 
support team.  I just use what they provide, and, as I said in an earlier 
post, once it is on the network, it is a breeze.  Redhat 9 is a little 
more involved as you have to provide dhcp numbers and so forth, but Fedora 
core 3 is more automatic.  I've done both with sighted help for the 
initial install, which doesn't take all that long.
73s
Butch Bussen
wa0vjr