Best Linux Server???

if its purely server oriented, people have prefered UNIX over GNU/Linux for that task, in which case my finger points towards FreeBSD 6.

If you want linux there are some server-oriented distros out there, CentOS is one that comes to mind, but since its based on RHEL and I hate RH and Fedora I can't recommend it.

I really don't believe there is any single one with the "latest features" since all of them are well, exactly what you make out of them, in which case Gentoo gets my 2 thumbs up, but its not for the weak (or noobish).

I am sure Seablade or BigTrouble can help you out more here since they have linux servers, i primarily use linux as a desktop os, direct replacement to windows.

I have 2 production servers, a LAMP server and an Apache/Tomcat/Mysql server both on Gentoo. Gentoo got the job done when the others couldn't.

Sounds like you could get away with more of a desktop oriented distro like ubuntu for your purposes.

Agree with BT, what you are describing most Linux distros can handle with little problem. What you will want to look into is Samba, which I believe Ubuntu comes with by default(Though I am not sure). Samba will allow you to provide network shares to the other computers on your network, wether they be Linux, BSD, Mac, or Windows via the SMB protocol.

Samba can be tricky to set up correctly though, so make sure you ask when you need help, but please GOOGLE first Especially with Ubuntu on their ubuntuguide.org (Right Address someone?) site I am sure they probably ahve a guide.

As you get more comfortable with linux you can create much more lean installs to run as a server that may work even better for you via Gentoo, however I dont reccomend it at first myself

Seablade

http://www.trustix.org

Been using it for ~3 years now, zero problems.

As others have mentioned, Ubuntu will provide the best mix of pleasure/pain . Really, it is a lot quicker to get up and running than a source-based distribution like gentoo. And, it has most of the latest packages with a huge user base and is based off a mainstay of the linux community (Debian).

If you get stuck while setting up the NAS, check out distributions like NASLite+ (http://www.serverelements.com/naslite-plus.php) and see how they do it. Regardless, it will be a lot of fun for you.

NFS ans Samba shares are fully configured with a default install of dapper. Just right click on a directory in nautilus and you can create a samba/NFS share. You can also browse a windows network out-of-the-box. In addition to that, the speed issues I had copying files from windows machines in Breezy and hoary seems to be fixed. I have to do more testing, but it appears that samba is perfectly implemented in Dapper.

Unless you leave the basic setup though most people would want to configre Samba at least a little, change the workgroup etc.

But its good to know it is set up well in Dapper by default, makes me happy.

Seablade

I'd say Ubuntu as well.. if you're more comfortable with text based / SSH administration you could safely run Debian straight up.. we run Debian on over 10 production systems, I'd recommend against FreeBSD & Gentoo if you don't have prior sys-admin experience.. FreeBSD is especially complicated. Gentoo is fine for home servers, but I still wouldn't use it on anything mission critical remotely..

Here's my dislikes about Gentoo for servers (don't hate me too bad, I still think it's great for desktops):

1. You'll waste way more compute cycles compiling things as opposed to binaries, so the speed benefit of compiling programs by hand won't pay off unless you're talking major traffic.
2. Portage meltdowns.
3. Security patches aren't as up to date as older distributions like Debian. Usually takes Gentoo longer to release patches & then you still have to recompile them and anything that depends on them (see #1).
4. Portage meltdowns.

Gentoo's great if you want the desktop experience though (as long as you know what you're doing in UNIX, don't just jump in to Gentoo, get your feet wet with Ubuntu or Debian).

So ultimately here are my recommendations:

GUI Based system / local server that can double as a functional desktop:
Ubuntu

Text based system for learning UNIX:
Debian
Gentoo (Don't start with gentoo unless there is nothing else on that computer / you have a lot of patience).

Hard core server system that won't be used in GUI/Desktop functions:
FreeBSD (Needs *a lot* of prior UNIX experience or triple the patience of Gentoo!)

Hope this helps, if you have any more questions let me know..
-P

Some other important things to consider:
If you're running more than one processor (SMP) on an older system, don't use FreeBSD. You won't gain any time compiling programs with that extra CPU because most of the FreeBSD ports tree doesn't support multithreaded compiling. Use Gentoo instead.

Gentoo will give you the newest features because they can roll out new versions quickly and especially with custom flags / masked packages. Might not be as secure as another distribution though.

FreeBSD is also mostly old school, especially in it's networking user interface. Linux will save you a lot of userland headaches. Linux will also provide better driver (module/kernel) support than it's FreeBSD counterpart.