This weekend I moved my main home server from XP Pro to Ubuntu Desktop 7.10 amd64. This server is responsible for running Slimserver and acting as a file/print server for several Windows systems in my house. Prior to the switch I was running Slimserver 6.5.x (I forget which). After the switch I decided to give Squeezecenter 7 a try, since I'd heard it was becoming pretty stable.
The entire process took remarkably little time. If I hadn't also moved my library from a 4 disk RAID 5 array to a 2 disk RAID 1 array, the whole process probably would have taken under 6 hours. (Yes, I know, RAID isn't a backup solution -- I use it solely because I want to eliminate downtime in case of a drive failure) The Slim Devices wiki told me almost everything I needed to know about installing and configuring SC7 on Ubuntu, and google took care of the rest. Setting up Samba for the file shares was very straightforward with Ubuntu, as was printer sharing. I'm amazed at how painless the entire process was. A few years back I gave Debian a try and found it a lot less newbie-friendly at that time, but I also was just toying around with it, whereas this time I was pretty sure I wanted to make the switch. All of that said, I'm not sure I'd recommend Ubuntu to someone who is not at least something of a techie. Although new to Linux, I've been working for IBM as an AIX developer and tester for 8 years, so I'm not new to Unix. A lot of my time was spent figuring out how Linux does things as opposed to AIX. If Windows had been my only background, some of the problems I faced would have been more challenging, although probably not insurmountable. As for Squeezecenter 7, so far I'm quite impressed with it. A big step up from Slimserver 6.5, IMO. The response time from the players is snappier, although I guess that also may be due to the switch to Linux. The web interface is better organized and more responsive. So far I haven't hit any problems. But I run a pretty basic setup on my server with minimal plugins, so YMMV. I guess I'm kind of hijacking this thread, since this doesn't help out the OP any, but I've already typed it, so I'm going to hit send! Mitch _______________________________________________ unix mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/unix
