Attila Horvath wrote:
Jon My question was/is genuine. It's not my intention to start a flamewar. However, I will search thru the archives for past opinions/suggestions. I apprecaite your response. I am new to LINUX and somewhat dismaid/confused about the various distributions. I'd like to set up a LINUX-based server for mail, web, personal commerce, etc. Since this is for personal purposes, I decided on LINUX based system because [1]it's free and [2]my perceived notion that it's more stable than windows environment. Being new to LINUX, a GUI-based system like GNOME adds some convenience but ultimately is not necessary. BASH command line-based system is sufficient. I [initially] chose UNBUNTU simply because it was handed to me to try out. After a couple of weeks of playing around, I discovered a wealth of information as well as 'choices'.
You can have Gnome etc on Debian as well. This threw me a while back. I installed Ubuntu for my parents as they need a so-called user-friendly machine. I then realised that most of the user-friendliness comes from the DE itself, i.e. Gnome or KDE. Despite my little use of it, I quickly came across a couple of pretty bad bugs in Ubuntu that annoyed me immensely, but then again I'm used to Debian, where perhaps I get spoilt.
I'm afraid the best thing to do is to read around. Both distros have websites, and there is always Wikipedia. Please learn about Debian releases. Don't install unstable or testing unless you know what the implications are.
If you like ultimate control and stability, try Debian. If you like to have decisions made for you, and you /need/ newer software than is in Debian stable, try Ubuntu.