Xubuntu Linux 2- Microsoft 0

Ok, so my relationship with Xubuntu started when I took an old beater laptop (that wouldn't run Win2k any more) and loaded xubuntu on it. Needless to say, that even though it was a little slow, it ran beautifully. Email, web, blogging and twittering (you know the important stuff)

So fast forward to this past weekend when I tried to load up my "free evaluation" of windows home server on my 2 yr old Dell E510. I loaded up the software, and the first problem was that it didn't have the drivers for my internal network card, so I had to burn the drivers on a disk on another computer and load them on the machine (no big deal- it happens)

So then I was dissapointed with the user interface that pops up when you run home server. You would think that since its for home use, all of the good stuff would be simplified. sharing, backup, etc. you know- the good stuff.

Not so, the biggest feature that it offered was a backup utility, which would have been cool- but here's the kicker. WHS has a little interface that you use to set up your network. You plug in a little info, sign in (or sign up) to a .net passport account, and its supposed to set up a domain server for you automatically.

The problem I had was that Verizon Fios blocks port 80- which I openly admit isn't Microsoft's fault. However, the part that sucked, rather than skip that step, and move on and set up everything else, WHS quits and tells you that it can't configure your router, and that you need to do everything manually, and it turns out that the manual setup console is basically the server console that started with NT.

So, I'm going through all the iterations of setting up the DNS, the IP address, and all the other crap thinking "What about all the poor saps that are going to buy WHS thiking its going to be a beefed up version of Vista?"

So anyway, I finally get the thing to connect to my network, and start setting up files, backups, etc. and find out that its conflicting with my peer network, and its messing up- get this, because this is the best part, its messing up the open ports on my XBOX. It sees the open connection that the XBOX has and sees it as a threat, even though the router is handling the firewall, and starts hosing the connection.

It was at this point, I turned the machine off, and installed Xubuntu. It found and loaded the drivers for the network card automatically without any help from me. I next loaded SMBK and proceeded to share the printers, the backup drive, and the video and music folders on my external hard drive.

The only two things I had to load were the drivers for my video card (it worked without them) and flash for the browser. It is "serving" two printers (which it found and loaded without my help by the way) music, and videos, and runs the backup for the 5 machines I have on the network.

So, I screwed with WHS all weekend, and couldnt get it to work, and got everything set with Xubuntu last night in about 2 hours.