I like using FreeBSD, the setup feels a lot nicer and more coherent than Linux in a lot of ways. I mainly tried it for native zfs.
The only downside is that nobody knows it exists so I have to compile things myself a lot or even patch it to get it to compile.
Hard to believe they want to shut down the program. A few years ago I did a summer research program with the WVU math department and it was a really great experience.