Ubuntu LTS, with all my services in Docker containers.
I know Ubuntu gets a lot of (deserved) hate for some of the shit Canonical pulls, but for now, I like Ubuntu and it works for me.
When I rebuilt my server at the beginning of the month, I was gonna jump to Debian, but my god the Debian website is obtuse. After looking at the site and trying to determine what to download to get Debian with non-free (I’m unfortunately working with an NVIDIA card), I decided to go with Ubuntu. I needed a smooth rebuild process and with Ubuntu I know exactly what I’ll get when I download the LTS server.
It's always best to use whatever distro you're most comfortable with. Especially if you're going to install stuff in containers/VMs so the repos of the base distro don't even matter that much.
After looking at the site and trying to determine what to download to get Debian with non-free (I’m unfortunately working with an NVIDIA card)
FWIW, Debian 12 now includes non-free firmware in the installation media by default and will install whatever is necessary.
I agree that the Debian website has its weaknesses, but beyond finding the right installer (usually netinst ISO a.k.a small installation image on https://www.debian.org/distrib/) there isn't much of a learning curve. I started out with Ubuntu too, but finally decided that enough was enough when snap started breaking my stuff on desktop.
The inclusion of non-free by default was what was unclear to me from the website. Knowing that now, I’ll likely give Debian a spin next time I need an install.
I went with Ubuntu server and was pleasantly surprised when it offered to pull my pubkey off my github profile for ssh. A nice touch that I haven't seen in other servers flavors of various distros.