get all your dev utilz from freshmeat.net... and no you dont have to be a developer to get them... apple just doesn't provide them to the average joe b/c they are following the M$ idea of trying to idiot proof stuff they think the end L user will and will not need =]
To conclude you can...
Yeah debian is the best as far as I am concerned =] If I had to give you a piece of advice it would be apt-get into it =-]
http://www.debian.org/
http://www.debianplanet.org/
http://www.debianhelp.org/
have fun.... and dont be scared away by dselect! just muster your way thru it~!@@#!
Now I dont know about classic working on ext2 files systems but this seems like the obvious answer... If I am wrong pardon me.
Make 3 partitions. An hfs(+) partition, and 2 ext2 partitons. Then install classic on hfs, osx on one of the ext2's and netbsd on the other. Then install lilo and...