[NTLUG:Discuss] Need Distro Recommendation, Please

[Rick Matthews]

I have a couple of older PCs running Linux here at the house that 
do a yeoman's job of providing the network with Samba shares, 
caching web proxy, access control features, content filtering, 
fetchmail retrieval of everybody's email, network caller ID, and 
browser access to all stored pictures and mp3 files. Additionally, I
always have a software project or three that I am working on (playing
with).

They are currently running Fedora core 2 and RedHat 8.  I'm not happy 
with the performance of FC2 (on old hardware) and I really need to get 
the other one off of RH8.

Here's my wish list:
- Free :)
- All I've ever worked with is RedHat or a work-alike.  I like to learn
new things, but I'd rather not start over.
- No need (or desire) to run X.
- I don't mind installing (and compiling) packages from tarballs, but 
I like having RPM for the bulk of the applications.
- Update via yum or apt. (Is there anything else in that category?)

What distribution(s) would you recommend?  Thanks in advance for
your help!

Rick Matthews