Low end PC as home server, what package should I install?

[David Vincent]

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Raymond Lee wrote:
> I have an IBM desktop PC (about Windows 98 2nd release(or whatever it
> was called that started support USB devices) time frame). I have added
> to a total of 192MB.
> 
> I want to turn it into a home server for other machines (one Windows
> Vista home basic, one Windows XP Pro) for access of multimedia data
> (photos and music) by attaching an 80GB or 160GB PATA drives which are
> dirt cheap now. Do you think it is a feasible solution? I think I'll
> need Samba. Is it included in the desktop version or the server version
> of Ubuntu? Considering the power of the system being on the low end,
> should I do Xubuntu? If so, again, is Samba included?

Many of us do exactly this.  I use the desktop version of Ubuntu and
enable Remote Desktop so I can VNC in and use GUI tools.  I also install
the OpenSSH Server so I can SSH in and do tasks via the command line if
that is easier.

> If this sounds ok, what about I move a step forward by installing a RAID
> adapter and run disk mirroring? Are there any such adapters (PCI bus)
> that are supported by Ubuntu?

Ubuntu supports Linux RAID so you don't even need any special hardware
to make a RAID array - it works with software only.  I've got a RAID-5
made of three old 30gb drives.  It is really slow performance-wise but
is more than I need for storage of OOo docs, PDFs, etc. etc.  (My media
goes on a different server.)

> Are there any online resources for help in starting Samba on Ubuntu?

Way too many to list here.  If you can ask a more specific Samba
question we might be able to direct you to a solution quicker...

- -d

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