We have received some great replies here. I do computer consulting among other things for my business too Ynot and I agree with it being a good platform for business servers on a variety of accounts. Don't knock ubuntu, its a fantastic platform. There is no reason not to make linux assessable and it doesn't limit you. Besides in a business environment win32 is still your dominant desktop platform, I personally was hoping ubuntu desktop would move in on that depending on the business and their needs and it has made some progress but nothing mind blowing. Your observations about support are also spot on Ynot.

dsr did a great analysis on distros, very well spoken. I have little to no experience with Arch linux but have only heard good things. As dsr noted and I've seen some confusion with for people new to linux your distro will pretty much support any interface and window manager your hardware and software support. Just because Gnome and KDE are standard on ubuntu doesn't mean you can't try openbox, enlightenment, and flux. For most linux systems I have they are all remotely managed with ssh. You can learn a lot by navigating and managing your system locally in console, although I'm not quite sure what your looking for in an OS Op.

I've used gentoo before for servers and if your moving from a easy to use gui based system that keeps your dirty work under the hood (ubuntu for instance), and don't want to learn the ins and outs of your software I don't recommend it. However if you are relatively experienced you may want to try it, as dsr mentioned it is bleeding edge and VERY admin involved. I however did not enjoy that level of maintenance over time for my servers and switched my stuff over to ubuntu with a custom more BSD like hardened kernel. I do have to say that gentoo is amazingly fast on incredibly slow processors to an impressive degree, and I'm not knocking it in anyway. BSD was not really discussed in depth, and is not linux, but if your into security you may enjoy playing with openBSD.

dsr is one of an increasingly growing group of people praising Arch so I may try it out if I get time, also the optimized 64 bit support that feels as fast as source is a big claim but sounds promising. Thanks guys for your contributions this is a pretty decent thread, not what I was expecting for an off topic forum. Great analysis by both Ynot about ubuntu and dsr about more minimalist and involved distros.