[slgeorge]

Honestly, Ubuntu doesn't even try to focus on your type of usage you've defined.

Given your companies pattern of doing its first deployment of Linux this year, and needing a very long support cycle - I think it's fair to say that you're looking for the equivalent of a traditional UNIX. Slow moving, with lots of stability and strong guarantees on backward compatibility. Red Hat and SUSE focus on that type of "enterprise computing" - they've grown on doing 'UNIX replacement'.

Ubuntu is aimed more at the (as you put it) "hip start-up scene" or at least the area in the technical spectrum that is about new technologies, concepts such as continuous deployment and cloud computing.

The funny thing is most enterprises have a bit of both those types of computing. Some slow-moving "eggs in one basket" services, but also the need for fast-moving innovative areas. So there's room for more than just one sort of distribution.