Any viable Linux Alternatives going from Windows Home Server?

[phobic]

Yeah so I have 4 PCs all sharing files and media using Windows Home Server RTM build. I was wondering if there were any recommended Linux distros to use as a server. My 3 clients are all running Vista. I have a HTPC strictly for videos/music, a main desktop for games, and a laptop mostly for surfing on the can or wherever.

The main PC I'm concerned about is my HTPC. I've been relying heavily on my server for the shows and movies I stream from it (Using Windows Media Center but I have no probs changing) and it would be great if Linux can still serve in this area. How difficult is it to connect Windows clients to a Linux server?

Any places where I can go get started? Thanks in advance.

 

[ModBoyzz]

Yeah so I have 4 PCs all sharing files and media using Windows Home Server RTM build. I was wondering if there were any recommended Linux distros to use as a server. My 3 clients are all running Vista. I have a HTPC strictly for videos/music, a main desktop for games, and a laptop mostly for surfing on the can or wherever.

The main PC I'm concerned about is my HTPC. I've been relying heavily on my server for the shows and movies I stream from it (Using Windows Media Center but I have no probs changing) and it would be great if Linux can still serve in this area. How difficult is it to connect Windows clients to a Linux server?

Any places where I can go get started? Thanks in advance.

To better help you, Could you tell us why you want to make the switch? Is there something that your current windows server isn't doing for you?

 

[ntba]

Well you can go many routes. First it all depends on your willingness to learn a new OS for something that in my mind would be "Production Quality", I mean why learn something new if the old way is working fine. Now it also depends on how well you are familier with the *nix type of OS. I suggest you first do a test install of a one of the many distro's available, play around with it, see how it works, and get a feel for it. You wouldn't want to trust your data on something you have no clue how to use? I wouldn't.

As for your options, any distribution or flavour of linux will work well by just setting up SAMBA and some shares (although this could be hard for a novice). Best bet is, like I said earlier, to download a distro like Ubuntu and test it out, since it comes with things like this preconfigured or with minimal configuration required.

Now if you are looking for something specifc that does JUST fileserving, I've heard many a good things about FreeNAS, which is based off of BSD Unix, which will, by what I hear, do everything except clean your laundry

http://www.freenas.org/
http://www.ubuntu.com/

Good luck

 

[munkle]

I had one hell of a time getting freenas to work, and honestly I don't know what I did to get it to work. The problem I had was that I went to map network drive in windows it kept asking for a password, and I know I put everything in right. Finally got it work somehow, works really great once it gets going and requires no additional input once its setup.

 

[As I Lay Dying]

my vote is freenas, not to mention that when freebsd 7.0 comes out, I am sure freenas will move to the freebsd 7.0 kernel, which means zfs filesystems, meaning you have a reliable kernel thats great for server use, and a reliable filesystem. Besides the fact freenas is already better then windows home server freenas with the freebsd 7.0 kernel mean you get an ever better file server.

 

[Ghettobox]

Have you considered Open Solaris? Very Mature..Very stable..and optimized for server work. Just a consideration.

 

[swatbat]

Have you considered Open Solaris? Very Mature..Very stable..and optimized for server work. Just a consideration.

Ghettobox

You are not allowed to sign your posts like you are doing.


On topic open solaris is a nice system but I would say something like freenas would be good. Windows Home Server has some backup features in it though that you just can't get on the unix/linux boxes without extra work. Also doesn't home server do updates for all of the other systems? Might want to stay with home server unless you have a good reason to stay away from it.