Ok, so I run a very small home server (right now I just run Minecraft off of it) which used to be my main desktop computer. As such it is filled with all sorts of stuff that it doesn't need to run anymore to be an efficient server. I am contemplating reinstalling XP on it, but the opportunity to switch to Linux is apparent. I have been a Windows user since I was born. I have used MacOS and Ubuntu, but not with any skill.
So, is switching to Linux worth my time to learn if I will only be using it for small footprint server applications, such as Minecraft? If so, is Ubuntu my best choice for a gentle transition from a Windows environment to a Linux one, or is there a better suggestion?

Most of the mainstream distributions are all essentially the same. They tend to use the same desktop environments (Gnome v. KDE), the same packages, and the same kernel.

The main issue is with support. Although I couldn't tell you why, Ubuntu has a reputation as being noob-friendly. The Linux community as a whole can be generally disingenuous and hard to deal with.

That having been said, my personal preference is with Fedora. But as I said, the de facto noob distro is Ubuntu.

And an extra comment: There is no smooth transition from Windows to *nix. Windows is a broadly GUI based system, whereas a lot of under-the-hood work on Linux is conducted in the command line. If you are comfortable with this, you should be okay.

Problem: I managed to break the kernel somehow.
I've partitioned off a bit of my laptop here for it and installed Kubuntu, and everything was fine. Installed Java fine, got everything except my wireless card and ATI card working (had to confirm that I wanted tainted proprietary drivers on my system).
Without need for the ATI card right this second, I started the installation of the wireless card and brought up Konqueror and the media player that ships with it, with the IM software idling in the background logged in. Something screwed up and the entire system hung, for I have no idea why. I did a hard power cut and restarted and got a kernel panic.
I'm reinstalling of course, is there anything that stands out that I shouldn't have done?

How did you get the wireless working - What did you install?

My money is on the wireless driver. Support for those things is so touchy.

You'll have better luck posting on a Linux support forum with people who do under-the-hood work with the distro in question.

Well the funny thing is I installed that driver earlier with no problem when I was just using the live version. I ran it off a thumb drive for a couple hours to get used to it and hopefully not mess anything up (like this ironically) and it worked fine, connected and everything.
Anyway I'll take a look at their forums. Thanks for the pointers.

kubuntu?

why not just use windows?

use archlinux

The only reason I'm considering Kubuntu over windows is the memory usage. It uses a full gig less. And now it decided to work with the same driver I was trying to install earlier, no idea why it worked now but not then.

I would say "Gift Horse. Mouth. Stay out.", but computers are so finicky that it may have reprocussions later if you just ignore it.

Windows has a big beefy GUI - useless for servers. It only detracts from the server's speed.

Linux-style applications are best for servers.

No ofeense, you obviously do not know what you are talking about. Linux-style applications? What does that even mean?

You know what I mean, gentoo, ubuntu, red hat, whatever.

IE: Linux distributions? Yeah, they tend to be very low resource consumption.
Which is why I am trying to use Kubuntu on my server box instead of XP. Because XP uses too many resources. Thus Linux would be great for it.
Q.E.D.

You're in way over your head and talking out of your ass only serves to make you look like you're doing exactly that and maybe ♥♥♥♥ someone's ♥♥♥♥ up when they try to follow your broken, uninformed advice. Please, please stop doing this. You have no idea how many times I've had to fix machines because someone had a tiny problem and someone talking out their ass gave them instructions or pointed them to instructions and they end up ♥♥♥♥ something to the far side of oblivion.
That being said, oh god kubuntu why.

I haven't actually done anything to the server machine yet, still taking suggestions.