Linux Server

I pulled two servers out of a rack yesterday with many more to come in anticipation for EOL of Windows Server 2003. I have these two rack servers sitting in my office and thinking about loading up a linux NOS to learn trial by fire. We went over Linux, SUSE, and Novell in school but I couldn't tell you anything about any of it anymore.

What are some resources on learning this (these, I have no particular flavor) OS. The spark on the forums recently about switching to Linux has been debating installing linux on my primary desktop at home since I'm not gaming as much recently so I figured I could learn this at the same time.

I'm installing Gnome Debian at home since that's what we used at school and I like it anyway.

Search away in the arch wiki, there's also pretty much info which isn't distro-specific

If you want to try connecting them back into an Active Directory Domain, use OpenSuse. It has better AD tools built into it.

I'll give another thumbs up for openSUSE. My laptop that is running it talks beautifully with my Windows 8.1 computer. The Samba implimentation is very well executed.

I'm seeing a bunch about OpenSUSE lately, not only in servers but as a general workstation OS. Does it work well for both?

I don't have any plans to actually -use- the server right now. I'm well knowledged on Microsoft systems and to push my career forward I'm wanting to learn Linux to be a more competitive candidate for employers so this is purely an educational experience where I'm going to learn or die trying.