Thanx Tersono. You recommend a Leopard client instead of the server. I forgot to mention that I have 7 staff using a combination of windoze and mac pcs. Will the extra software cover achieve the same purpose? Which software?
Cheerio,
Hellene
Well, it depends on what you want the server to do ;-)
If you're going to want to run it as a domain controller, then you'll save yourself a lot of work by going for OS X Server. If you're just going to be running it as a file share, however, then the client version plus a copy of SharePoints (freeware) will do all you need.
The other thing to think about is whether you'll running mail and web servers as well - if so, then you have a choice. You can install a mail server fairly easily on OS X client using something like PostFix Enabler or MailServe (inexpensive shareware), but they're both fairly basic. If you need server-side spam filtering, public folders, calendaring and the like, then it's either a commercial package such as Kerio, or, again, OS X Server. Web services are easy on either OS, although multiple sites are a tad easier to handle on the server version (not enough to be worth the extra money on its own, though).
The beauty of OS X Server is that it offers a wide range of services - including an open-source implementation of Active Directory, which works very well with both Windows and Mac clients - in a package that's much more straightforward to handle than, say, a Windows or Linux server. If, however, all you need is the basics, then client can handle it quite nicely with minimal effort.
I make my living as a Systems Admin and have installed OS X-based servers both ways at various times, dependent on the requirements of the situation. Ultimately it's all going to depend on how sophisticated you need to get.
