Right now I am using the RC2 test version of Mepis.  See Mepis.com  I will move to the regular version as it is scheduled to be released this month.  The render time for the Complex Green scene is 45 seconds which is the same for windows.  The PC's are MSI mother boards with AMD 64 chips at 3000.  One G RAM.  I don't know what render nodes are?  If you have a complex scene to suggest for a bench mark  I'll render it.