No I’m not talking about little people. A long long time ago in a gallaxy far far away…. I was a Novell certified network admininistrator for Novell 3.11/3.12.
In fact I have kept that system going ever since then (1992) in our home where the most folks we have ever had connected to that server is about 6.
Now we have upgraded a couple of our computers to Win 7 64 bit, these computers will not even see the Novell network. They turn their CPU’s up at the thought of even trying to connect to the ancient system.
So I am looking for the Best, but least expensive server NOS to put on a stand alone machine as a dedicated server, as I just happen to have several machines laying around that aren’t dinasaures yet, that can serve that job just fine.
Just like Novell, about the only thing we would be doing with this server is file sharing and running an occational application that several machines need to access.
If I want to pay megs bucks I can go with Windows Home Server software. But since I like the sound of “Free” software I thought an Open Source NOS might be a better choice for our needs.
The problem with Open Source software (OSS)is I know absolutely nothing about Linx, BSD, Apache, Debian, or any of the other OSS out there as I’ve always been a DOS / Windows person.
I was a computer instructor for several years and have seen a lot of software that most folks haven’t even heard about or have totally forgotten about, and I try to stay current on the new MS software and some of the other programs out there. But I never got into the Linux or any of the Linux derivative software that has come out in recent years.
All the machines we have are DOS / Windows based except one, that might be fun to network, but this MAC doesn’t need to be linked right now.
So what is the BEST NOS software for us to use in this situation? Free sound good to me, but will I be able to learn (I’m not quite to the “Old Dog” stage yet) the Open Source software and be able to set up a server and then connect all these other computers from Pentium 1, 32 and 64 bit and above to this serve with MINIMAL hassels and frustrations?
Inquiring minds what to know–
Thanks for your help with this puzzle.
Richard Hughes
