Is Ubuntu Server a viable alternative to WHS (v1 or 2011) ?


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Hi, I?m wanting to set up a Home Server to serve Media (Video, Music and Photos) across my home (and maybe remotely). I have tried WHS pp3 and also WHS 2011. Both products look good but I will need to buy a licence to use them long term. I do not mind however if WHS is the best solution for my needs. I have tried freeNAS but find it a bit "skeleton". What I want to do is install/setup the server and forget about it. Not having to maintain it very much. As a free alternative ive also been looking at Amahi (but I need to install Fedora first and then Amahi, which, if a good solution will be ok, but it seems a bit long winded) and also Ubuntu Server. I?m leaning towards Ubuntu Server atm but before I go through the process of installing and setting up my server, I?m wanting to know if Ubuntu Server would fit my needs, or if Amahi is what I need. I?m just really not sure what to settle with. Any advice would be very helpful. TIA.

Mainly Media sharing (Video, Music, Photos). Backup of other computers on my network would be a nice extra. As would some kind of DE system thats in the original version of WHS, but this is not a must have. Thats about it really.

Essentially if all you need to do is make some file shares so you can copy data to and from it, then yes Ubuntu Server will do the same sorts of things as Windows Home Server quite easily...

But be prepared to get stuck into editing config files, etc as Ubuntu Server doesn't install with a UI - it's console only :)

judging from your question you do not have a lot of knowledge of linux. In that case WHS will probably be easier for you to configure. But you can achieve the same things with any linux distro, you'll just have to do more stuff manually, if you like a bit of a challenge, go for linux. You'll learn a lot of new things and although it might be frustrating sometimes it can be fun to find out stuff :)

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