TheMagicM wrote:
for such a simplistic server I'd run Linux. Solaris IMO is much more secure than Linux, equal or better stability. Wider range of hardware is supported under Linux. More software available under Linux. All in all in your application I think Linux would be the better decision.
I can dig this. Some Linux distros out-of-the-box (OOB) are ready to roll as file servers, and it can be much more friendly with hardware.
But the question here is, why not just use a USB NAS device? D-Link, Linksys, Buffalo... don't they make the server part for around $100, then you just attach your external hard drive and viola. Or are you looking for a little internal admin xp?
That's why I built my Solaris 8/x86 box. 400MHz AMD K6-III+, 128MB RAM, Intel NIC, Matrox PCI video. Runs Bind as a cache and internal IP resolution, native DHCP, and Sendmail. Same specs should run most Linux distros nicely.
With a Linux box, you could also take a Windows-formatted hard drive with a butt-load of your files and slap it in the box -- it can read FAT32, and I believe the NTFS is mature at this point.
