Now that my N800 has opened my eyes to the world of Linux, I'm thinking of installing some variant of Linux on my old (700MHz) desktop PC once I buy a new one for the kids.

Question is: Which flavor would be best?

The main purpose of the Linux box would be file storage for my home network (storing audio and video files as well as other file backups, accessible by the new PC or my N800 or work laptop when logged onto my Wifi router) but I'd also like it to be an alternate browsing platform. Because I'm not a Unix expert, I need a reasonable GUI, too.

Deeper questions:

Would Debian be a good choice since I could also install Debian on the IT?

There is a variant of Ubuntu called Xubuntu which specializes in better performance on old slow systems. Can this flavor be used for my purposes (network server)?

I'd appreciate any comments.

Thanks,
DF