I'm currently building and testing apps on my laptop on Windows XP having installed php, mysql and apache. I'm already running a website on a web hosting package using a Linux OS not sure which. However I'm keen to upgrade to a virtual server hosting package with root access to give me more control and access to the php.ini file etc. I intend to stay with my current host who offer virtual server access with a default OS of

CentOS 5 + Plesk 9

and options to instead have:

CentOS 5 minimal
openSUSE 10.3 + Plesk 9
openSUSE 10.3 minimal
Debian 4.0 (etch) minimal
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS minimal

I know very little about Linux and have been trying to do some research into which OS is better or what differentiates them. I'm looking for some guidance around things i should consider so i dont regret the decision later on.

For example i tried loading up the app i've been working on locally to my hosting space and now realise it must be a slightly older version of php than that installed on my laptop as it doesnt recognise try, throw exception commands etc.

Any advice? Thanks.