SOLDIERX.COM Nobody Can Stop Information Insemination

I haven't used Linux for a while, and in the past used Red Hat, Slax, and I've played with Ubuntu a bit recently. At this point I would assume that I have little/no knowledge of Linux, but I'm definitely eager to learn and ready to push through learning it from the ground up if that's what it takes.

I had a friend recommend Gentoo to me for hosting, and I don't remember at all why. How's Debian go as far as server use (I see a lot of SX recommending Debian)?

I'd like to use many different server protocols -- http, ftp, DSS (Darwin Streaming Server),telnet, smb, possibly vpn, etc. -- basically anything and everything, so with that in mind is there a particular Linux distro that would work best? Is learning FreeBSD a good idea/worth it?