[protocol77]

I currently have a server running windows 7 but i have been curious about linux i have tried it a few times in virtualbox but i am considering using it for my new home server i am going to build

what i want to know is if most of my computers run windows should i stick to a windows OS for my server will there be any drawbacks to using a Linux Server with Windows Clients

I do have a Openelec machine but only one the rest run windows 8.1 I have thought about using Windows 8.1 pro x64 on my new server as i don't want to pay the fortune for the server 2012 especially when the server is only used for storage and streaming over network so don't really have any need for the extra features of server

on the other hand i was thinking of going the linux route i am a noob at linux so i might start off with a distro with a GUI Lubuntu seems a good choice as it is lightweight

i know i could simply install a GUI on Ubuntu server but from testing it out it is too locked down for me so for basic storage and sharing Lubuntu looks good

i am however unsure on what the performance (file transfer etc..) would be between a

Linux machine and a Windows Client

VS

Windows Server and Windows Client

[noggin]

I run unRAID (which is a Linux based server OS which is very popular with XBMC users as it has some media-friendly features - hence the sticky in this forum) and get transfer rates of >80MB/s between my Windows 7 and unRAID machines over GigE. (That's >640Mb/s) This is for writes to a cache drive - not to the Parity protected array in unRAID.

One of the really nice things about unRAID is the User Share feature. This creates SMB/CIFS (i.e. Windows Shares) that are linked to folders across multiple drives - so you don't need to know which drive in your array your movies are on - they can all appear to be in a single SMB/CIFS share called "Movies". (If you configure this properly it means your movie files for a given movie are all on one disk, and only that drive is spun up for replay, with everything else in the array stopped. Great for power consumption and low noise)

[Dougie Fresh]

I've been doing some looking into FreeNAS again lately and it's looking good. If it's still around, Amahi also looked interesting. The last I checked there was an Ubuntu-based version.

I am using WHS2011 since I snagged a $35 copy last fall and I already have a StableBit DrivePool license and everything setup with MediaBrowser 3 server. Otherwise I would have looked more closely at FreeNAS.

[nickr]

You don't need a GUI. Ubuntu server is all you need. Performance will be better than windows.

[teki4u]

+1 for FreeNAS

[buzzqw]

just go Debian (xfce or gnome) with samba and nfs share, no need to warry anymore

BHH

[nickr]

Xfce and gnome have nothing to do with servers.