<div dir="ltr">Hi All,<div><br></div><div>A friend of mine has a small biz with 6 PC running Windows XP Home set up as a Workgroup. He has a dedicated app that saves files to a shared folder on one of them, and all other PC access these files as clients...</div>
<div><br></div><div>This specific PC that acts as a server is dying (the hard disk is failing and caused the PC to crash a few times).</div><div><br></div><div>I am trying to "sell" him the idea of a Linux based File Server. The dedicated app doesn't care where the share is, as long as it seems as a Windows Share. I was thinking this is a classic SAMBA Server scenario.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I need help with the following:</div><div><br></div><div>1. A few "selling" points for the Linux based solution.</div><div>2. Which solution to implement?</div><div>2a. Ubuntu Server with SAMBA?</div>
<div>2b. A dedicated distro (FreeNAS or some such)</div><div>3. A way for him to see what's going on with the server, some basic admin tasks (like rebooting the server if it is not accessible) - some way to make them feel they have some control over it and it's not just a black box they cannot see.... or some way to make them drop that specific demand from their list....</div>
<div>5. This server should also handle backups to an external USB drive and send reports by e-mail in case of a failure.</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks!</div><div><br></div><div>Amichai.</div></div>