I prefer Debian and debs myself, although I've found it is easier to hold back updates with RPM, and to roll back installs. My experience with serious system admin type stuff is quite limited though, so I'm sure I don't appreciate the full benefits of either system.
I really like Arch's pacman system - it makes aptitude look slow. Combined with wide range of software available through AUR, and the power of the ABS build system, Arch is quite impressive. It's a shame that there's not a stable server distro that defaults to binary packages, but has a well integrated system for building packages. I suppose that would be FreeBSD, if FreeBSD was Linux. Or Gentoo, if Gentoo wasn't entirely source based. Asa
