Win XP or 2000 for fileserver

[Boneless]

I am going to rebuild my fileserver OS soon and was wondering what the pro's and con's of win2000server or win XP pro are.

[Blakhart]

Xp pro is my choice.
With 2k you have abt a 500 meg core os install without including the swapfile. With xp I think it's about a gig. 2K will run well with 128 megs ram especialy if you turn off the services you will never use and those that are security risks. In a 2k install it is easy to get it down to 64 megs taken/used by the os, as opposed to xp taking 128 in every install I have seen. Xp should be ok with 256 megs ram, and more is always welcome. Xp may have steeper reqs, but if you have the resources, it will matter little. Xp may also be better at acpi, such as hibernating and so on. It also (supposedly) has a better scheduler implementation than 2k. You will have to get a firewall app to be safe with 2k, and you can use xp's firewall that is built in.

You can also dl a free copy of Server2003 from M$ (abt 550 megs, you will need software to copy the iso to cd) and try it for x amount of days. Server2k3 is a refined xp pro for server use. The html and other coding in it is supposed to be far faster than previous M$ os. Also the timeslice (millisecs the cpu runs a thread) given to threads is optimised for net/server use, but can be adjusted for foreground apps. The one person I know who is running it likes it. I will be installing it on a game server this weekend.



You might also want to look into Linux, there are some pre packaged server distros, and most every distro will allow one at install to specify what you will use the computer for: workstation, games, server, etc.... down to selecting the ftp apps and so on. Just don't use an older copy of wuftp.....

[Boneless]

Since it's recent, don't you feel that server 2003 might be buggy? Let me know how your gameserver goes. I have never tried Linux before, how idiot-proof is the setup and interface? Are you talking about consumer distros that can be specified setups?

TIA

[glc]

If its a fileserver, use a server OS - therefore if you have a copy of Win2000 Server, that would be appropriate. XP Pro will only serve a workgroup, not a domain.

[Blakhart]

What G said. Although you will find domain setup far more trouble than it is worth for simple fileshares.
And no I don't think s2k3 will be buggy, as it is a refined xp pro.
It will have sp2 built in, I'm betting. My friend who is running it has much xp home and pro experience and he has had no complaints. He is quite crazy about it for some reason, getting all hosty on me, host this, host that... etc...