BSD is the best for servers(in general), BUT it doesn't even have as much software support or hardware support that linux has. Sure MOST linux software will run on BSD and vice versa, but its not guarenteed unless you compile it from source code yourself.

As for the bare bones and most standard linux distro's, there are more than just Slack and Debian(<-still a major distro), they are the most popular, but Gentoo, Chainsaw, Arch, Dettu[X], and Core are amoung the most minimalist and fastest linux systems out there. Gentoo and Dettu[X] are prolly the hardest systems to install, and Dettu[X] is only for the linux Guru's that live in linux(no offense to those linux guru's). Gentoo is not only command line install, but a Stage1 install doesn't even use a setup program, its all done with source code and a generic compiler.

Sure the major distro's have become way overbloated just like winblows, but the core linux distro's are still out there that use source code and .tgz files to get all their work done.

Even though i'd love to see a newb staring at a command prompt from a gentoo boot disc waiting for a setup program to open, I still recomend people to start with a major distro, such as Debian to learn the basics.