For Debian, could i install the GUI, and then like apt-get like and ftp program?

Well if you have a GUI installed then you can use Synaptic (a front-end to apt-get) and point and click your way around system upgrades.

Likewise, you could install a FTP server (or client) via Synaptic (or apt-get if you prefer the command line).

[Threads Merged]

Slackware

I think FreeBSD is very good

I don't know what your experience level is, but you might want to look into Clark Connect, which is free for home use, and includes:
Internet Gateway
Firewall
VPN
E-mail
Bandwidth and P2P Manager
Intrusion Prevention
Web and FTP Servers
Antispam/Antivirus
Content Filtering
File and Print Services
Data backup

Slackware or FreeBSD for functionality aspects of the server. If your are aiming for security over extra functionality, get OpenBSD.

Very intresting. I'm currently using Ubuntu as a sever but I admit I'm a Linux Noob. I'm very intrested in trying Debain and FreeBSD. What exactly is BSD again? It's a form of Unix right? Sorry I'm not that educated in this area .

Go with Solaris. Rockstable. And you get ZFS where it belongs.

I was planning on installing win2000 server to muck around with ad/roaming profiles ect but i got told i should do it with linux instead so what distro(/s) should i look at?.

Debian or Slackware

I would use:

Debian or Centos (but debian is a lot easyer ...)

For servers, Arch Linux is a good binary distro.

If you don't mind having a source-based distro and updating your server once in a while (and spend some time doing so, hence short downtime) then Gentoo would be another good choice.

In terms of freedom of choice avaiable for you to make, I'd have to say Gentoo is one of the best.

Xebian on an old Xbox. It's surprisingly amazing. Solid, quiet, good performer, and low power consumption

OpenSolaris 2008.11 (Coming Soon)

I recently installed Ubuntu Server and I absolutely love it. Very easy to deploy and maintain. It may not be as personalized as, say, Gentoo, but it is still awesome =D

Ubuntu Server is pretty nice

For my server I have tried lot of distro and for me the best is Centos 5 and with rpmforge I never had dependency problems.

we run several servers dedicated and whatnot our flavour of linux is centos which is definitely top linux distro out of most major ones i've found and tried for servers

Agreed. I use Archlinux for two of my servers at home, and its fantastic. its VERY fast, even on my slower Celeron based server, it flies on start, Beats the redhat servers we have at work in terms of speed. Only thing you have to be careful of is to stay up to date with the news on the site. There could be an accidental bug in a package when you want to update, but other than that, fantastic Distro.

Sounds like a pretty significant setback to something as critical as a server.

A lot of fairly serious Unix (Solaris) guys at my place of work use Ubuntu server in production and like it a lot...

The company I used to work for used Redhat on all of their servers.

Well, thats why with arch you have a choice by using Binary based packages, or Source. They have a similar system like PORTS on BSD. Just compile your own package, grabs the source and installs. Great system

I supose i was a little unclear about it.. Bug as in, installation bug (as in it wont install the package at all), not really a bug inregards to the application when the package is installed. There has never been bugs where a package Brings down a system, making your system unbootable or messing with other applications. Nothing that serious. (mind you i'v had that with RHEL at work.. and it was a nightmare)

mind you i'v never had a problem on my servers for many years with arch. Only bug I have encounterd is the package wouldnt install due to Symlink issues (as i mentioned above). Reading the main page shows you the work around.. to get it installed.

Or as i mentioned, just use ABS, arch build system and do it yourself. I still recommend it.

Managed servers on hosting companies use Redhat.

But dedicated linux boxes use CentOS, worth looking at that one, its easy to use and quite secure.

If redkahn hasn't figured it out since 2005, I don't know how much your advice will help.

not sure if i already posted, if i didn't FREEBSD!, it wasen't fun in start, but after i got the hang, god, its bad ass. such a powerful tool.
though dangerous in the hands of a Geek.

Ubuntu Server