I agree, with experience in this area (a lot of it): CentOS. Others are saying *BSD or Ubuntu or whatnot -- IMHO that's all because of politics or because of pe

I agree, with experience in this area (a lot of it): CentOS. Others are saying *BSD or Ubuntu or whatnot -- IMHO that's all because of politics or because of personal preference. You want something that: - is seasoned - is widely used - is aggressively updated - is guaranteed to be supported for years - is free That's your CentOS. It's RHEL, of course. And CentOS has a foundation that gathers cash, so it's not just going to disappear one day.