self-managed linux hosting account

Its not that much hard to learn Linux, however, it is much difficult to manage a server. You need administrative skills to manage a server and its tasks. Day-by-day new technologies are emerging and we need to change according to the time and technology. So, IMO, you should opt for 64bit version. However, my personal opinion would be to opt for a managed server hosting solution so, that you can concentrate more on your core business. Getting a managed hosting doesn't mean that you can't do anything on it, you can still perform tasks if you want.

Thanks for replies on both forums.

As of right now I am trying to setup Linux on Win7 / Virtual Box for development and testig purposes. I know that choices come down to server versions of Centos, Fedora, Debian, Red Hat or Ubuntu (somebody actually told me not to use this one because root is disabled by default and it can be changed but it is not recommended).

I need to figure out which one would be the best from the perspective of running a localhost and installing some of the programs listed below, as well as learning some of the tasks needed for server administration

(I know this does not have to be easy, but from what I imagine Unix / Linux environment is below the level of PHP and Javascript as far as learning; PHP is easy, JavaScript a little harder)

Programs:

MySql
Imagemagick
Mencoder (doesnt work with 64bit)
Ffmpeg
Flvtool
Qt-faststart
PHP

So it basically comes down to chosing the best distro (I know they are similar for the most part, but still I want to get the best for what I want to do from the start, for whatever reasons - applications, documentation, support etc). I am also not sure if I can connect to Virtual Box from Win7 on the same computer (somebody told me I need a network card or two separate computers for something like that; Win7 - Putty -> Virtual Box - Linux) so I need to figure that out also.

Thanks you all for your useful information.