Just switched over to the Fedora-14 box for this post.
Good for a workstation but it has a Windoze-like feel to it, IMO. Update notifications, warnings about being logged on as root, a bit too much of the "protect us from ourselves" stuff for me to adopt it over CentOS. I set up ALL the machines as Class-C LAN install. DHCP is fine for wireless access in a bookstore/restaurant/hotel but in a business or a house LAN scheme, it needs to be hardened, IMO. SAMBA, Wins, etc.
Tom: have you any need for a SQL server package? If so, look at Firebird. Open source, built on Borland's early SQL warez, really a great data server solution.
As for the Win7 vs. prior MS O/S releases, I'm loathe to admit: I like 7...
it's what Vista should have been. The "Home" edition is a bit too over-protective but Pro version is really a pleasant tool from an admin point of view.