Redhat Linux 8 is about the easiest thing I've seen yet for a linux distro.. It's almost scary how good it is. Basic web hosting with apache is a fairly well documented project.. and redhat comes with a modest setup when you install the server option.

As for GUI web design.. the only thing I've used is the mozilla editor.. which makes supprisingly good pages.

The nice part about setting up a redhat box.. it doesn't cost you anything but time to give it a shot. if you don't like it.. nuke it and start over