Two answers as questions:
1. Have you used any other distro?
2. If you have to ask.....

First of all the name itself and the meaning if the word :)

Then, it is very easy to learn, I had never used Linux before but with a
little help from a friend and the wonderful community I got it all
working very nice.
Iy looks great, it is stable and there are so many opportunities to get
my computer as I want it.

I am a newbie too, but have tried installation with Debian and Redhat before, found it a real pain to find device support. I installed Breezy Badger a few days back, all my basic devices work fine. no probs with Xwindows. typical install asks u just the basic questions and hence a pain free install. except that it filled almost 2GB space for the basic packages, which I dont bother much about.

As a newbie, this is something I expect out of a new OS, and am pretty much satisfied at this stage. Those tiny little issues, ah I can fix 'em

The pure freedom of customizing the liven hell out of
it. You can't really tweak with some other OS systems
that you pay some cash for. Ubuntu is easy to use and
easy to grasp. Granted Linspire is for the very new to
lunix and you have to hack into it to able to DL packs
that is not on Linspire warehouse list.
There is lots of shit you can do with Lunix and shit
you can't do that windows does. If you are ready to
install and ready to rock. Please read the guide at
http://ubuntuguide.org/. Grated that Ubie 5.10 is now
out and you can upgrade to the new one with little
hassle.
If you want extra stuff, you can DL Easy Ubuntu. easy
Ubuntu is really slick program.
Please with the live CD, if you want dual boot your
HD.

You might want to look at my linux pages on my website:

http://www.bahaisojourner.org/linux/

Since then I have Keir's book on Ubuntu,
And have gone through 7.10 to 8.04 Ubuntu and Kubuntu, Old computer
too and New Lenovo with at present dead Vista.
I have Ubuntu Server but have not yet been very successful with it.
Not such a Newbie.
Started with Unix in 1984!
Linux Since 2003.

OK, you've piqued my curiousity. :-)

What about it seems to be troublesome?

From the writeup here:

<www.ubuntu.com/.../serveredition>

it would seem a better choice than, say, CentOS, and given that I've
had only good experiences with Ubuntu's desktop editions I'm preparing
to download/install it this weekend and would like to know what to keep
an eye on.

Anything you can cite would be useful, and I'll specifically check those
things out and report back next week. Thanks!

The server edition of Ubuntu is great, but lacking in interface. It is
strictly command line. You can install a GUI but that kind of defeats the
minimalist approach to running a server, that is, having maximum avail. RAM
and disk space for the server software to run.

There is also a different kernel package installed with server.

You may want to familiarize yourself with the apt-get and apt-cache
commands, as well as aptitude. Then I'd get used to using nano as it will
be the most basic but easiest to use command line text editor.

What services are you planning on running?

Also you can run a server platform even from Desktop edition, nothing says
you can't, I did for years. However, the resources consumed by gnome or any
other GUI services installed will be locked up in those services instead of
the apps you are serving.

Also, if you plan to administer the server remotely, remember, never use
telnet, only ssh.

> The server edition of Ubuntu is great, but lacking in interface.
> It is strictly command line. You can install a GUI but that kind
> of defeats the minimalist approach to running a server, that is,
> having maximum avail. RAM and disk space for the server software
> to run.

Exactly what I'd expect.

> There is also a different kernel package installed with server.

How so? Both the i386 and amd64 editions are labelled 8.04.1, same
as the present desktop editions. I'm surprised the amd64 version is
smaller, 569MB, vs. the i386 version, 571MB. Regardless, the server
edition is supported to 2013

> You may want to familiarize yourself with the apt-get and apt-cache
> commands, as well as aptitude.

The Server edition supports apt, aptitude and dpkg.

> Then I'd get used to using nano as it will
> be the most basic but easiest to use command line text editor.

Nah, I need capability, so emacs is the first thing installed if
it's not already there. I've been using emacs for 30+ years now.
You can see a scanned copy of one emacs manual RMS himself handed
me at Stanford in 1980 here:

<thadlabs.com/FILES/Emacs-150_1980.09.05.pdf>

> What services are you planning on running?

asterisk, qmail, apache, and possibly OCFS, GFS, DRDB, among others.

> Also you can run a server platform even from Desktop edition,
> nothing says you can't, I did for years.

Same as the first Sun workstation I used in 1982. You can see a
short blurb about it here:

<http://thadlabs.com/FILES/HPCQ_SUN.pdf>

I still have three SUN-3/60, three AT&T 3B1, four SPARCstation20,
five SPARCstation10, three SUN IPX, and other systems here besides
all my Linux boxes. One modern system triple boots into Solaris 10u5,
Fedora 9, and Vista SP1.

Yesterday I ordered another system from Fry's that'll be the one to
run the Ubuntu Server edition: Intel dual core, 4GB RAM, 250GB HD,
and I'm picking up two additional 500GB SATA drives for it in about an
hour at a local Fry's. Total cost is less than US$500.

> [...]
> Also, if you plan to administer the server remotely, remember,
> never use telnet, only ssh.

Heh, I've been setting-up data centers since the 1960s, used the
ARPANET since it began, and I was also the last IT person at a
company some of you may recognize, Linuxcare (aka Levanta).

The fact Sun has teamed with Canonical is of great interest to me.

This quote:

" Sun is committed to providing customers a choice of operating
" systems on our x64 servers. Sun has worked closely with Canonical
" since early 2006 and we continue to see growing interest in Ubuntu
" on Sun platforms. -- Lisa Sieker,
" Vice President of Systems Marketing, Sun Microsystems

appears in the Ubuntu Server Brochure which can be seen here:

<www.ubuntu.com/.../...ServerBrochure804LTS.pdf>

I know it's bad form to answer one's one question, but I just
found this tidbit in small type on Ubuntu's site regarding the Server
Edition:

" Uses a specifically tuned kernel to optimise your hardware
" and to handle all the most common server workloads. Also
" tuned specifically for virtualization where Ubuntu operates
" as an excellent hypervisor.