Wiping a Dell 715n Clean and Installing Linux

Has anyone out there tried installing linux on a Dell 715n? I am frustrated with windows server permissions mis-matches with unix clients... things never seem to stay put. I'd have a much easier time if this were a linux server...

All I need is to run samba and a few other basic services and manage the device remotely via the command line.

Just wondering if anyone else has given this a shot. The main impediments seem to be lack of ports on this thing (monitor, keyboard, mouse). I think I can rig a cd-rom to the pci slot and boot from an ISO disk for the actual linux installation, but I'm not sure how to monitor what is going on without video and keyboard. Can the serial port be used for this somehow ?

Thanks - Hal