Sorry guys, I bet you get sick of hearing this question all the time, but I hope some of you will help me out a little.

I am looking for a Linux Distro which would suit my needs, mainly, I want to achieve two things:

Install a distro that will help me further understand and 'learn' how things are done with CentOS (which I believe is a clone of Red Hat). CentOS is used on a dedicated server I rent, so it would be handy to use a distro that is similar when it comes to command line/inner workings etc

But at the same time, I'd like a distro that, maybe, will be able to replace windows as my day to day OS at home. So should have plenty of bells and whistles and not make me feel like I am using an 'inferior' OS.

My thinking is if I get a windows replacement for home, it will force me to learn Linux for my decated server's purposes.

It will be installed on a new PC using an intel C2D e6420 processor.

From reading websites, I am leaning towards Fedora Core (but is the lack of community support an issue?). CentOS would be an ideal choice, but if it's not going to be a good windows replacement, I just won't use it, which will defeat the object.

Ubuntu seems to be a very popular choice, but I don't know how much it would actually help me with understanding CentOS. Same goes for Debian.

The other alternative is to use a Distro which is the _best_ for web serving (Debian? FreeBSD? Other?) and then perhaps ditching the CentOS server I have at present, and going with a new server using the same Distro (it will have Cpanel installed anyway).

Hope some of you can help!

Cheers.

This question is asked very often, and all the answers are already posted.

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

Read through that page. Look for interesting links as well as the primary reviews. Picking a distro is a philosophical and personal choice. All you can get here is people advertising their favorites. None is distinctively superior to the others in any technical sense.

You really should have just read one of the other 10,000 or so threads with the same title.

For your needs, CentOS and/or Fedora would be perfect.

I agree. Both derive from Red Hat but while CentOS is essentially a clone, Fedora is more of a cutting edge system: it is a testing ground for software that may one day be included into RH. In short, Fedora offers the latest in software, CentOS the stablest. Which doesn't mean that Fedora is unreliable.It's very stable, too, providing you don't adopt a new release too quickly. FC6 has been out for a while now so it should be perfectly fine.

My reason for suggesting CentOS is in the first post:
"Install a distro that will help me further understand and 'learn' how things are done with CentOS (which I believe is a clone of Red Hat). CentOS is used on a dedicated server I rent, so it would be handy to use a distro that is similar when it comes to command line/inner workings etc"

He uses CentOS already, so why not stick with it. Particulalry if he wants to learn the ins and outs of it. I then added Fedora as the skill set and knowledge list would be the same, but Fedora is more suited to a desktop.