What Linux server platform do you recommend for production servers

I work in a Windows shop, but will soon be testing linux on a test server. We intend to eventually deploy a production linux server that will need to cooperate with a Windows Server 2003 Domain Controller.

I’ve used Debian in the past, but it was a hosted server, so I didn’t have to add it to a domain myself. We’ll be using the future production server for Apache/MySQL/PHP applications and possibly email.

I’m hoping to receive some advice from the collective intelligence of this group about which flavor of linux is best for production servers. I am a linux administration beginner, but do not want to sacrifice security and infrastructure for ease of setup. Am I right in thinking that Red Hat is the typical linux production server?