General Unix Learning

[Mariano Guadagnini]

In my personal case, I would recommend Linux for a  Desktop box and *BSD
for a server/firewall configuration.
Linux have a better support for new devices and multimedia, but if you
plan to run it on a very standard machine, that wouldn't be important. 
On respect of software, there isn't much difference, as most software
that works on linux also works on freebsd, but if you are 
used to a pure unix, as you say, maybe you'll feel bsd more confortable
(system tools, shells, configuration, etc reminds more to a common unix 
system than Linux's  ones) but this is also relative. 
Well, that's only my point of view, I hope i'll help you,
 
 
Mariano Guadagnini.