I've done this with Ubuntu, albeit making a workstation rather than a server. Works fine, although Gnome 2 is a bit sluggish with the window painting. I'll pr

I've done this with Ubuntu, albeit making a workstation rather than a server. Works fine, although Gnome 2 is a bit sluggish with the window painting. I'll probably move to XFCE or something lighter for the desktop/window management (it's a simple apt-get install plus whatever configuration tweaks one wants to make). Given Ubuntu's current direction, if you were to go with it and want to use the Gnome 2 GUI ("Classic"), I'd say that's all the more reason to go with / stay on the 10.04 long term release (see pilooch's comment). And keep in mind that you may be leaving Ubuntu altogether by 13.04 at the latest. Although by that time, you may be looking to retire the Thinkpad (from its current use, at least) regardless. I'm no expert; just the results of my own dinking and thinking. P.S. Unstated: If GUI's not a concern, then no worries -- probably go with whatever production environment is of interest to you.