Which Linux distribution would people recommend?

I'm thinking of setting up a dedicated Linux box for developing my extras on. Haven't installed Linux for quite a while has anyone got any recommendations?

Thanks
Mike

CentOS seems to be commonly used. Generally speaking, you should look for a basic server distribution, rather than one of the "kitchen-sink" desktop distributions. You won't even need a graphical desktop if you're just using it as a server.

I was thinking of using it as a desktop too and developing on 'localhost'. Does CentOS have a GUI?

Thanks
Mike

That I don't know; although it's just Linux, you can certainly install anything you want (gotta love "yum"!). In any case, since you want to use it as your development environment, then any version will do.

Any 'nix clone can do the job, I had a good time playing on a Solaris clone - OpenIndiana - a couple of years ago. Zones are really neat. If I were to set up my own server again, that's what I would install. It has the option of install a Gnome desktop. There are some subtle differences from Linux, though. For example, at that time the DADA mailing system didn't work on it; I don't know if DADA ever fixed the issue. But MODx, PHP and MySQL on both Apache and nginx worked just fine.

Starting out with a basic LAMP stack would probably be the easiest; setting up lighty or nginx is perhaps best put aside for another time after you're comfortable working with the whole system.