When I ran the program cryptos wrote about, it "chose" to mine zcash from a list of 4 or 5 miner programs it comes with, I think since zcash produces the most money per unit time right now. If you want to try to mine zcash on linux, you can go to their website and download the miner code. https://z.cash/ I did it on a Windows Azure account, on a 4 core 12 GB Debian Linux machine. I got about 4 Sols/second and it has been running 4 days 24/7 and my balance is still zero.
I think cryptos' miner program is part of a pool, so we do get a little bitcoin every minute or so. I think the z.cash miner is a stand alone miner, so if you find a block you get 1.25 zcash which would be about $600 or so right now. But it is starting with "slow mining" so I assume the chances of getting a payout will increase in a few weeks, but the price may be way down as well. I think it is predicted to stabilize around $60 and it is now at $480. http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/zcash/
Good luck in whatever mining you choose to do!
Using my wifes laptop I was getting about 18 sol ran it for about 4 to 6 hours then she made me stop using it lol, I did make .0015 zcash on suprnova.cc to get an good amount of zcash you need amd rx 4xx last i saw.