I'm trying to update my small file/print server on my home network. it's an older machine, and I was thinking about using a Linux OS on it, to make it run a little better/faster/smoother.

Is there any site on how to get Linux & XP to play well together? One that is not written Just for the IT/Linux/Networking geek?

Any suggestions on what distro of Linux? (I was thinking of Ubuntu, or one of it's offshoots.
I'd like it to have a good GUI...as I don't speak Linux..yet.

Thanks!
Tall Shadow

Here's a very easy distro for server use: smeserver.org/

I had a previous version running on a P-133 computer with 128mb of ram, so I think your older computer should run fine.  Installation will be somewhat slow on a computer that slow, and the computer will have to be bootable from CD;  once in operation though, it ran fine.

Getting file and printer serving running on a windows network was very easy from the control panel (remote) interface.

Tall_Shadow, Ubuntu would be a good choice.  If you install Webmin, it will make most admin tasks on your computer fairly simple.  You can configure Samba (for Windows file sharing) through Webmin.

After you get the hang of Linux, you can drop the GUI stuff and it would run even better on an older machine (and require less disk space).

here are a few sites i used to setup my ubuntu file server on my windows network

#1
#2
#3

Quoted: Tall_Shadow, Ubuntu would be a good choice.  If you install Webmin, it will make most admin tasks on your computer fairly simple.  You can configure Samba (for Windows file sharing) through Webmin. After you get the hang of Linux, you can drop the GUI stuff and it would run even better on an older machine (and require less disk space).

Is webmin part of Ubuntu, or a seperate program?

Tall Shadow

Quoted: here are a few sites i used to setup my ubuntu file server on my windows network #1 #2 #3

I see I have some more reading to do........

Thanks!

Tall Shadow

Quoted: Quoted: here are a few sites i used to setup my ubuntu file server on my windows network #1 #2 #3 I see I have some more reading to do........ Thanks! Tall Shadow

just a bit, i skipped to most of the things i needed to know when i needed to know them. it only took about an hour to get it all setup, and there has been no maintenance in 6 months. really a rock solid server distro.

would have taken less time to setup but it took me a little while to realize that my server had a bad cd drive