Choosing the best OS for a simple Raspberry Pi server

I'm a big fan of FreeNAS.  I was first exposed to it while evaluating NAS (network attached storage) options at work.  I spent quite a bit of time with it, and the more I used it, the more I liked it.  While it's just a storage OS, the fact that it's based on FreeBSD gives us the ability to run fully functional FreeBSD jails, and this lead me to consider fully replacing my old linux-based home server with my FreeNAS server, using jails for the services outside of the FreeNAS functions, such as DNS, DHCP, mail (postfix) and web services.  This was all well and good until I had my DNS/DHCP server moved to a jail.  When I rebooted the FreeNAS system, I discovered that the system was coming up and looking for addresses before the jail had started - for example, the NTP servers.  While this wasn't a huge issue, it lead me to look at a really lightweight server outside the FreeNAS system for critical services such as DNS and DHCP.  I almost immediately settled on the Raspberry Pi, a simple system on a chip (SoC) which was inexpensive and used very little power.  Not only would it make a good little server, but it's a cool system to play with, so I wound up buying two - my "prod" DNS/DHCP server, and my "dev" server where I could try new stuff.

To be clear, yes, there are many other ways that I could have solved the problem, but here I'm more interested in trying something new and getting my learn on, and the Pi looked like it could be fun to play with.  It's a home network, where you should be free to try cool new stuff just because.

In my selection process for a server OS, I should also mention that I have the most experience with the RedHat derived OS's such as CentOS and Fedora, so I'm most comfortable working in them.  It's not a 100% requirement, but it's nice to have.

The distros I tried:

• Raspbian
  This is the most common Pi OS, and as such is the best supported, so this is an excellent choice for a server OS as it'll be easy to keep the software up to date, and it's got a wide selection of software to choose from.
• pros: the most common, the most well known and tested, the most well supported.  Hard to argue with that, so it's where I started.
• cons: it's a full desktop OS and as such contains tons of unneeded software, and it's not RedHat based.
• Pidora
  This is Fedora ported to the ARM architecture.  With my professional linux sysadmin background being heavily based in RedHat and Fedora, I was eager to give this one a try.  Reading reviews of it online, however, it seems that this isn't as well supported.
• pros: Based on Fedora with which I'm more comfortable
• cons: not as well supported, not reviewed well.  Had it downloaded and installed and it looked like it was based on F18 when 20 is current on the "mainstream" Fedora.
• RedSleeve
  This one really caught my attention.  I've been running systems with RedHat for years, so I know it well and I like it.  RedSleeve is a port of RHEL to the ARM architecture, so would be perfect for a minimal server OS.
• pros: an actual server OS, and a truly minimal install from the get-go.  Based on my favorite server OS, so I was immediately comfortable and had it singing happy tunes almost immediately.
• cons: hand ported by a small group of folks, the latest version is 6.1 (CentOS and RHEL are quite a bit farther ahead) and the primary maintainer said that updates to 6.x will probably be less active as he'll be working on the 7.x release.  While I love the concept, I want something a bit closer to current.
• FreeBSD link
  Another promising selection since I'm getting more and more familiar with it from my experience with FreeNAS.  Was originally unofficially supported, but is now part of newly released FreeBSD 10.  I was able to get an img file and put that onto a SD card, but when I booted it up, I discovered that it didn't have the pkgng package management kit installed.  It offered to install it, but couldn't find it.  I then had to go with the ports in order to install anything, and downloading and extracting the ports tree took several hours.  I was running on a Class 6 SD card, so that might contribute to the slowness, but it just seems to me that until pkgng is fully supported, FreeBSD really isn't ready for a proper server _quite_ yet - but hopefully it will be soon.
• pros: another real server OS with a minimal install that looks like it's getting real attention.  
• cons: not fully official with pkgng support yet - but as it gets more attention it's going to be a real option, I think.
• MINImal raspBIAN link
  Based on the raspbian, but built from the ground up as a minimal install.
• pros: minimal install from the ground up, latest packages available.
• cons: hand built so might not be the latest kernel/etc
• Raspbian Server Edition link
  Starts with the latest Raspbian, but runs a script to strip out all the unneeded packages
• pros: based on the most common OS, starts with the latest version.
• cons: assuming the maintainer of the scripts has the right packages to remove.

As excited as I was when I found Redsleeve, I've gotta say it doesn't look like it's getting the level of attention I'd want for a real server OS, where you want to stay current.  Pidora looks like it's aiming more for the desktop market, so doesn't look like that will be much of an option, either.  So right off the bat my desire for something RedHat derived looks to be unfulfilled.  No big worries, there's really nothing horribly different about the other OS's, and running something Debian based will give me more opportunity to whine about the aptitude tools, which I don't think are quite as good as yum.  Minibian seems really good but since it's custom built, might not be as up to date.  Haven't had a chance to try raspbian server edition yet, but it looks promising as it's a server-oriented minimal install, but what really has my attention is the FreeBSD 10.  I'll keep coming back to that because I have a soft spot in my heart (or my head) for running minimal servers on *BSD stuff harking back to my very first home servers running OpenBSD.  If they get the pkgng issues sorted out, that'll be my choice, but until then, it looks like raspbian really is the best choice for a little RasPi based home server.