Ok, guys, I need your help. For the past few years, I've been running the server using an older release of Mandrake. For the most part it works great. However, it is impossible to upgrade packages (ie from PHP 4.0.x to 4.1.x), and security updates have ceased as well (shhhh!). So I really need to upgrade to either a new version of Mandrake or a new distro all together.
I'd think about simply downloading a new Mandrake ISO and doing an update, but I've heard that this often causes problems. Also, in a few years I'll probably be in the same situation I'm in now. Not to mention that unless they've changed things, Mandrake doesn't offer a non-graphical package update utility. MandrakeUpdate had to run in X, which is a pain.
Debian seems like a good choice, due to the fact that there aren't really "releases" - everything is constantly updating. However, I have Debian running here, and it's a major pain in the ass. Often something that should be very simply is anything but.
So what does everyone think? What options do I have? Keep in mind I have several MySQL databases and a bunch of system user/passwords that I need to preserve. Not to mention domains, e-mail setups, etc.