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Best Linux OS for a Beginner to set up a remote Seedbox?

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Freedom Kira:
My old fileserver/seedbox, which is still up and running on the side, uses Ubuntu 10.04 desktop edition.

If you are a beginner with Linux, I would recommend you go with the desktop edition and install server software. This way, you have a GUI to work with, instead of having to do everything by command line right from the get-go. Desktop and server editions are essentially the same OS anyway - they just have different stock software installed. You can install server software on the desktop edition and vice versa. This was what I did with my older fileserver, and still what I did with my new one last year (running 11.10 right now). By the way, 11.04 is already outdated, released one year ago.

Instead of the 10.04 though, which is two years old now, go for the 12.04. It's not completely stable yet, so give it a month or so if you're unsure (or install it right away and play with it before you actually put it to server use - break the installation and learn to fix it, that's the best way to learn Linux). 12.04 is their next LTS version, meaning it gets a few years worth of support instead of the usual few months (a new version is released every six months, in April and October). 10.04 was the previous LTS version, and the next LTS should be in April 2014 (14.04).

12.04 also uses a significantly different interface from 10.04. The new interface, Unity, took over the classic GNOME desktop in their 11.04 release, IIRC. So, if you use the old interface, you will have to learn a new interface all over again when you are forced to upgrade.

Some good software you'll be looking for:
1. OpenSSH - by default, Ubuntu desktop does not have an SSH server installed.
2. Samba - good network file sharing service. If you won't be accessing files over the local network, you can skip this. If you do install it, be sure to install something related to python, as the Samba configuration GUI won't start without it.
3. VNC - remote desktop software.
4. Some torrent client - I personally use KTorrent. You might prefer Deluge. Tranmission is installed by default.
5. Apache2/MySQL/PHP - if you intend to use HTTP server capabilities, this is a must. Otherwise, skip it. Search for LAMP tutorials to help you with this.

A note on your SSH server - to make it as secure as possible, you will want to use stored keys instead of password authentication. Look up some guides on how to do that - it's a somewhat tedious process to learn. Also, you can use SFTP capabilities once your SSH server is installed, but make sure whatever SFTP software you use is able to handle using stored keys. Password authentication makes everything a heck of a lot easier, but of course also makes your system a bit less secure.

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