I will be upgrading my PC in the next month or two, and it's such a major upgrade that I'm considering just buying a whole new system. Either way, I'm going to be left with a system and I'm thinking about recycling it into a home server. I guess the main uses will be central file storage, back ups and streaming media, although I might also consider using it as a central mail server given the number of machines in use around my house.

I'd like to build this on linux if possible, but have pretty much zero knowledge of the OS so would like to avoid any obvious pitfalls and versions I'll have to spend a year learning how to use.

I'm sure there are a number of linux users on the forum, so can anyone give me some help here? Which version would you recommend, and is there any add on software you think would be really useful?

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Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

I advice Linux Debian. It's the best OS to learn linux with imo.

+1

My webserver is runnning Debian and it's great to work with.

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SaintK: I'm completely lost

debian ftw!

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DISCLAIMER: If you find a posting or message from me offensive, inappropriate, or disruptive, please ignore it. If you don't know how to ignore a posting, complain to
me and I will be only too happy to demonstrate...

True

Anyone else like Ubuntu Server 8.04 (FYI: It's Debian based)?

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function printSig(){ print "Code is poetry!"; return true; }

Ubuntu is great also, mostly cuz it's debian based. I have runned ubuntu server for 2 years by now, and i love it

I would suggest Debian aswell, I am leasing a server at leaseweb with Debian Etch on it... never gave me any problems, and there are enough howto's on the interwebz when you get stuck or in trouble

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<@[SpA]DonDonDon> someones gotta love me, and that someone is me

Centos is the way forward, all my dedicated servers run Centos.

Its very good for servers not used it very much desktop but some of the guys at work prefer it over fedora and other types of linux.

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"Destiny finds those who listen, fate finds the rest"

My experiances with Fedora were on Core 5, and man, what a horror was that!

I never worked with Centos, heard alot about it thought.

Sorry for digging up old threads but I just feel i have to reply ^^.
Depends on what you could take mate.

If your some kind of super geek id suggest to choose a advanced version.
If your not really experienced more like a windows person.

I would deeply suggest Ubuntu, its pretty basic, but advanced if you got the right knowledge.
The more you know, the more advanced it gets.

Ubuntu is GNOME based, if you realy want to go that route, I'd suggest Kubuntu (The KDE version) - I like open SUSE personally.