CentOS vs. Debian - Real World Servers

[fos]

I may purchase some colocation space in the near future. I intend to build a dual core (most likely AMD due to price) system with Raid 1 SATA hard drives and a couple of gigs of ram.

I have narrowed my operating system choice down to CentOS and Debian. I would consider FreeBSD but I have no experience with it at all. I am most comfortable with Debian. I have CentOS set up on a system that I'm currently building a LAN around.

How do the two fare in the real world? Does CentOS SELinux help with security?

I'll be running the machine remotely via ssh. I can have access to the physical machine but it will be very difficult. For the low price package at the colocation company, they will only reboot the machine free during office hours, they charge a fee for doing it outside of that. Technical support for the machine directly will cost $80 per hour. The limitations won't be significant since it is an experimental system for learning, nothing important will be running on it.

fos....

[danieldk]

Both are good contenders. I like CentOS for the security techniques that are available out of the box (Execshield, gcc/libc hardening, SELinux). On the other hand, you'll have to lock down the box, and that is easiest with the system that you know well. I have to add that there are many good RHEL books that describe server security (including Red Hat's own documentation).