whats best for file server windows or linux?

Question

so i have tryed and tryed again and cannot get linux to work as a file server. i don't understand sabma, i am the sort of person that needs to see things in a GUI to be able to use them. and i cannot install samba because there is too much text typeing and i am not good with this.

as i cannot gte it installed because as far as i know there is no program for linux that you can install a file server totally in GUI munu form, is it worth getting windows 2003 or somethingn as i need it running but i am new to linux and don't understand it

Answer 1

Neither. The easiest solution is a device like one of these:



http://www.buy.com/cat/network-storage/10995.html



Devices like this are built to do one thing really well. Network Storage! They do it well and they are stupid simple to setup.



I hear the Buffalo stuff is nice:



http://www.buy.com/merch/q/mfggid/253/querytype/comp/store/1/als/-1/loc/101/zc01/40891/zc02/45417/pageTitle/Storage%20Devices,%20Networked%20Storage/showall.html

Answer 2

The term "best" is relative. If you are more comfortable in a Windows environment, use Windows.



Don't let your discouragement stop you from further exploring Linux, though. Several of the more popular versions have a GUI. My personal favorite is Debian. It is very stable, secure and reasonably easy to install. OpenSUSE is very good also.



The first source link below details how to set up a file/print server with Debian using Samba.

Answer 3

Linux is very hard to learn if you're new to it

sure, you might get a file server set up on it eventually (but the headaches and stress it's gonna take you to get there might not be worth the efforts)

I've always believed to use what your familiar with and it sounds like windows 2003 is more your cup of tea (mine too)

even if you have to spend the money, it might be a worth while investment if it makes life a little easier



good luck :-)

Answer 4

Samba is file server and Linux to Windows connectivity software. It is windows implementation on Linux and hence easy for Windows machines to talk to it.

If you are using Fedora Core 8 there is system-config-samba available so that you can configure your Linux-Samba server through UI.

Also there is a SWAT, a browser based tool developed by samba team to configure Samba.



If you care to learn.....don't give up....don't hesitate to ask questions there are plenty of sites and plenty of people to help. Search through usenets to find answers.



BTW......with default samba configuration user directories are shared by default so just to connect to Samba you don't need much of configuration.

Answer 5

If it is urgent to get the server running then by all means, get hold of one of the Windows server softwares.

Depends what you want to do with it really - if it was as a learning thing - don't give up too soon!

Answer 6

There is a tool called swat, part of the Samba package. This gives a web interface configuration tool. All you need to do is enable it in xinetd

Answer 7

if you're just an end user, there is no need to have a server OS that you can't use / understand, nuts to what everyone else says, any real modifications are done through gui anyways.



just go Windows, I did, it's so much easier, and commandline will be outdated in 5 years or so.

Answer 8

NFS