I would argue that Slackware is for people who have a better understanding of how the system fits together than many (but certainly not all!) of the rpm/deb package users. I use Slackware in an Enterprise setting on 70+ servers that cover everything from email to web-hosting to firewalls to custom built "sales presentation" devices. For us, slackware gives us complete control over the systems, without having to guess at what other services or programs may muddle with different parts of the configuration. It's easy for us to disable and remove any services that are not necessary on a particular computer, and we have our own custom installation, testing, and deployment scripts that allow us to keep machines with similar purposes up to date and in sync. While we could accomplish the same things with virtually any distro, Slackware is (for us) the easiest to do these things with, and "Just Works".

Check out the Asterisk software, and specifically the "chan_mobile" extension. It allows you to use a cellphone (with bluetooth) as an "incoming" channel for a phone system, or to use the cellphone as an extension on the phone system. I believe that chan_mobile is included by default in the newest (1.6.x) version of the asterisk software.

Asterisk has a fairly steep learning curve, so it will likely be a time consuming adventure to get it all working, but assuming the bluetooth on your phone supports it, it should allow you to do what you want. You will need to have a Linux computer that has bluetooth, runs the asterisk software, and you will also need an "FXS" port (can be a $15 internal card, or a $30 IP based one) that connects your home phones to the computer.

The voip-info.org site and the asterisk-users mailing list are both invaluable if you are just starting out with asterisk.

If diving into setting up your own asterisk server from scratch is too daunting, it may be easiest to try a prebuilt setup (such as Trixbox CE) and then following one of the guides for adding chan_mobile support to it. I can't personally say how involved this would be, since I've never used any of the pre-setup Asterisk systems.

Good luck!

This is becoming more and more frequent in new master-planned developments. The "FTTH Council" currenty lists 78 communities and municipalities that are already providing FTTH service. You can grab the list from the FTTH Council here.There are many other communities that are not on this list yet because service hasn't actually been turned on.

Having Cat5 home run from several rooms to a central panel has slowly become the standard for new homes in many areas. I began forcing this on our builders about 4 years ago. As someone else pointed out, builders are very conservative... but if you can show them that it will only take $500 more than they currently pay and that they HAVE to do it because all of the other builders are doing it, then they'll fall in line with only a little grumbling. Of course this is really only possible withing certain price ranges. Most of the homes in our developments are $250k and up.

The "Community Intranets" are also fairly common in larger communities. They range from small sites that the developer hires a high-school kid to put together, to specific sites built from "intranet packages" that are tailored for large developments. Examples of vendors include Neighborware and Resident Interactive.

~
I hate mornings.