I'm planing on makeing a fileserver, since my laptop is stuffed full of mp3's and I dont trust external HDD's as they tend to crash to often. I've can get a computer for free from work since i work at the IT departement at the local hospital and we've been getting rid of a lot of old computers, and setting up new Wyse terminals. Ofcourse since theese are all Pentium II or III at the best. My friend at work assures me that theese will do just fine as a fileserver with Windows server 2000 or 2003, but that would be too easy. What I want to know is if there's a Linux distro (or BSD i guess) that will be fairly easy to set up, work well on an old computer, and most importantly be able to make network shares that won't be any trouble getting too from a Win XP computer (preferably useing net use to make a network drive) - Mouse
Debian would be a great choice, but if you're after something a little easier to set up and use, perhaps try Ubuntu.
I have fileserver running OpenBSD 3.7 (upgrading soon, reluctant to spoil the 80day uptime ) running on a Cyrix 600 downclocked to 400MHz & passively cooled. A Pentium 2 is going to be plenty of power for it. Really any flavour of Linux or BSD would be fine, I only went with OpenBSD to try something new. Debian or Gentoo would work fine, I hear Ubuntu has something tailored for server installs (? don't quote me on that). I share files out with Samba, works on every OS I have running here. Just "Map Network Drive" in windows, enter user/pass and you're away. Initial setup can be tricky when Windows is involved but theres plenty of guides out there to guide you.
An other thing I'm ofc interested in is; will Linux make a better file server. i.e. use less resources, and make it a generaly "faster" server then what a Windows server would. (also realized this thread should probly be in the Linux ad Open Source category)
It really depends on how you run it. You can get rid of the Xserver (GUI), and all other services you don't need (as indeed you should on a server anyway), and it will be a LOT less resource intensive than Windows. But something like the default Ubuntu install will likely be equivalent to an XP install until you start cutting it down.
Ubuntu has a server installation that doesn't install a desktop environment, and runs pretty light. Also quite easy to install.
Windows 2003 Server is a pain in the butt. I have it here and am seriously thinking of ditching it and running linux when I can get reliable driver support for my Promise sx4000 Raid card.
I've got a web/file server running on Slackware right now, took me all of 3 hours to set up, including the Slack installation.
