My Ubuntu Obsession
In the Linux world, I'm most familiar with Ubuntu, which is why you'll find most code examples on my site are based on that platform. Much like Red Hat, Ubuntu has strong corporate backing and a vibrant open source community. It is one of the best supported Linux distros, and provides a great platform for tutorials.
As of this writing, Ubuntu 16.04.x LTS server is my go-to version. I prefer to hang a back a bit from cutting-edge versions of any operating system. I value stability and the fact a modicum of bug-cleaning has already occurred over the “latest and greatest” version of almost anything, unless there is a compelling reason to jump on board earlier. I submit to you that reliability does (or should) trump feature sets for almost all applications. Most operating systems need a minimum of a year in production before the most egregious bugs have been identified and squashed. And sometimes, upgrading just isn't necessary.