I'm interested in your opinions regarding the 'best' Linux distribution.  I'm not interested in ease of use, I need reliability and an emphasis on security.  Any help will be greatly appreciated.  

If you're interested in security, check out [url]www.openbsd.org[/url].  Or, there's Bastille Linux and the NSA's hardened Linux distro.

I stick with OpenBSD though.

God Bless Texas

I like the SuSE Pro package. Comes with a ton of extra software. I have never had any reliability problems.

I have run various RedHat 6 and 7 distros and find them all to be quite reliable.  Security is really a function of how much you know about what your system is configured to do and what attacks it is vulnerable to.  A good place to start would be the Secure Linux HOWTO
[url]http://www.linux.com/howto/Security-HOWTO.html[/url]

Thx for the feedback GodBlessTexas, SexualChocolate, and Muselix.

I run OpenBSD for my firewall/gateway/NAT box and FreeBSD on the inside at home.  The reason I 'need' Linux is because my boss said that he'd like me to start doing some Linux stuff at work.

I'd rather get some feedback here than from one of the boards or chat rooms because they tend to only be centered around a particular product.  It's like asking, "What's the best rifle chambered in 7.62x39?" on AK-47.net.  And heck, we all know it's an AR-15 lower with a 7.62 upper. [:D]

I have heard good things about SuSE, but I ended up with Red Hat 7.2. Its just like Windows!, if you add another $1000 worth of sofware to Windows!

Well, I have used Red Hat since version 6.0 or so, along with several other distro's.  Didn't like Corel, too pre-fab.  Mandrake has a pretty good thing going with 8.0, but they keep adding some things and taking away from others.  Red Hat sets the standards in LINUX pretty much, so you really couldn't go wrong with a RH distro.

Security is going to be what YOU make it to be with any distro.  Turn off services you aren't going to use, put up a firewall and Tripwire.  Run it behind a firewall and you will be pretty much ok.  Run it wide open with no firewall and your machine will be sending out spam email in about 15 seconds, or perhaps worse.  I literally had a script kiddie take down my gateway machine while I was in the process of setting it up.  His root kit only showed up on my logs for 2 seconds (no joke!)before my logs were comprimised.  Before I knew it he had installed netbus and was running sendmail on my machine!  Lock it down and keep up with security fixes and all the distro's come out to be about as secure as any other.

Mac OS X 10.1!! [:D]

Ok, ok, its Unix(FreeBSD based), but it is great!

Apple Forever!

[b][size=6]Debian[/size=6][/b]

Mandrake is pretty cool because it is easy for a Linux newbie to install. Windows style GUI already integrated.

Glad you asked [:)]

I have a MacOS 10.1 G4 and Two Red Hat boxes.

I am resolving some issues with my ISP, if you want you can check them out at: [url]http://lewistechnogroup.com[/url] once my line is back up.

GodBlessTexas, Muselix and libertyof76 are correct.

FreeBSD is well KNOWN for its security, its supposed to be the best. Ultimately, its still up to you.

As a package, Red Hat is nice as it has a lot of helpful features and some nice packages. It is more user friendly than most if thats what you need. A lot of the others don't have the ease of use, install and maintainance that Red Hat has. Now, this is mostly due to the packaging as well as some of Red Hats apps.

Regarding MacOS, I know you don't have a Mac but its Niiiiiice. Its based off of FreeBSD, it runs very well - I just love it!