[ale] Ubuntu for developers?

[dcorbin at machturtle.com (David Corbin)]

I'm very experienced Linux guy.  I've been using it for over 10 years using 
various distributions.  Gentoo is my preference right now.  At my office, we 
have a couple of linux-newbies that would like to get off Windows.  I really 
don't want to recommend Gentoo to them, because at work, they need to focus 
more on getting work done, and Gentoo does have some higher maintenance. I 
know that I'm going to be their first and second level support for Linux 
issues.

One of them asked about Ubuntu.  I know virtually nothing about this 
distribution.  However, I've gotten the impression that it makes a lot 
decisions for you.  Since these guys are developers, and we tend to need very 
explicit versions of various tools, I've kind of steered them away from 
Ubuntu.  Have a made a mistake?  Would this be a good distribution for them?  
Will I be able to figure out how to help them easily configure stuff knowing 
only general Linux stuff, and not Ubuntu in particular?

Is there a better distribution to recommend to them?

David