[ale] Small Office Server Distro Recommendation

[Brian Pitts]

Patrick Bartkus <patrckb at ...> writes:
> I would like to suggest that he convert one of his outdated systems to a SaMBa
file archive server and add a big disk or two. But I'm hesitant that
administering it will be more than he can handle. He has a PhD but not in
science . I would be willing to set it up for him but am not wanting to be his
IT staff.
> Do you have a recommended distro that he can easily administer? I was thinking
FC5 with WebMin for a SaMBa config util but just not sure.

I've read good things about the http://www.freenas.org . It has a tight focus on
serving files, and the web-based configuration system looks very easy to use.

"FreeNAS is a free NAS (Network-Attached Storage) server, supporting: CIFS
(samba), FTP, NFS, RSYNC protocols, local user authentication, Software RAID
(0,1,5) with a Full WEB configuration interface. FreeNAS takes less than 16MB
once installed on Compact Flash, hard drive or USB key.
The minimal FreeBSD distribution, Web interface, PHP scripts and documentation
are based on M0n0wall."