Hi,
well BSD is "the old mans linux", but beware it has the daemon inside, no neat penguin walking around
read this, it's a must read if you want to go into BSD:
http://docs.freebsd.org/doc/3.4-RELE...c.html#AEN3561
[you know Douglas Adams, don't you..]
in BSD you will leave mainstream and some old men are very unflexible, but it is far more powerfull then linux by default is.
oh and for the distro stuff, allways make a choice you will want to engage. i allways used redhat systems, so im pretty biased
Cheers