My 2p: Use something you're familiar with, and that you have a good source of information flow, by which I mean, subscribe to security updates (including for w

My 2p: Use something you're familiar with, and that you have a good source of information flow, by which I mean, subscribe to security updates (including for whatever stack you put on your server), and certainly have a test server simply for playing with things, getting used to functionality. I have a shell app on my phone, which I love, so I can log in at a moment's notice, wherever I am, just to check things out or apply a change. The Linode and DO tutorials are pretty nice, and cover the vast amount of eventualities. If you're unsure which to choose, go with the one that has more documentation for your use case. DevOps is not cloak-and-dagger mysticism; having control and understanding of your stack is, imho, far more important than choosing between a distro to run it on. Just make sure your server is locked down and that you regularly apply updates (that you've tested on your test server).