I have been playing with setting up a server for my home network on and
off for a couple of years now and I finally have one set up that I can
access from the various computers and device on the network, it started on
one of my Gen8 boxes running Windows 10 but currently runs on an HP Z230
with a Xeon processor (also Win 10). Network performance hasn't changed
but it's more responsive when carrying out admin tasks. It holds files
used centrally and all my media which is fed to an NVidia Shield TV Pro
which runs Kodi.

I want to re-case the server but the Z230 is a bit proprietary so I have
"won" a Lenovo TS140 on eBay which I know I can re-case since I did one a while back and have a power adaptor and front panel diagram for.

I would appreciate some advice on the OS without starting an advocacy war,
I use a Mac Mini, Loads of Android Devices, a Linux box and several
Windows 10 PCs so am happy to go with whatever seems appropriate.

The TS140 comes with a COA for Windows Server 2012 R2. I think that might
be fun for a few days but will then become tedious so I am inclined to
ignore it unless anybody suggests otherwise.

That narrows it down to Windows 10 or Linux (my Linux box has Linux Mint
xfce which I like).

Windows has the advantage that I am more familiar with it. Linux has the advantage that the one box would be able to run Braserio for iso file production and act as a server.

Anybody willing to chuck in any objective ideas while I wait for Royal
Mail to move the TS140 from one end of the UK to the other?

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
If it's not broken, mess around with it until it is

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 15/05/2026 12:49, Jeff Gaines wrote:

I would appreciate some advice on the OS without starting an advocacy
war, I use a Mac Mini, Loads of Android Devices, a Linux box and several Windows 10 PCs so am happy to go with whatever seems appropriate.

It really all depends on what you want to DO with the box, and what
software you plan to use to achieve that.

Given that you're probably not going to run Android on it or turn it
into a Hackintosh that realistically leaves you with Windows or Linux
(or one of the Unixes).

You seem happiest with Windows, so if the software exists to do what you
want that it probably the easiest path. The software almost certainly
does exist on Linux - probably at no financial cost - but may be less polished.

The TS140 comes with a COA for Windows Server 2012 R2. I think that
might be fun for a few days but will then become tedious so I am
inclined to ignore it unless anybody suggests otherwise.

Don't do that! That's SO out of date that even the malware that exploits
it is out of support. :-)

That narrows it down to Windows 10 or Linux (my Linux box has Linux
Mint xfce which I like).

If this is to be a server, I'd run it without a GUI desktop. Probably
even run it headless and manage it through SSH. No need to burden it
with a GUI layer that will almost never be used. Running it headless
means you can shut it away in an attic or garage where it can do its
stuff without getting in the way.

Windows has the advantage that I am more familiar with it. Linux
has the advantage that the one box would be able to run Braserio
for iso file production and act as a server.

"Brasero"

Brasero is a GUI tool so you couldn't use that without a GUI desktop
(you could run it on a headless system with a GUI via VNC). You can
build iso files on Linux without a GUI, though - Brasero is just a GUI front-end for cdrtools and others.

... but if you're proposing to burn these iso files to CD/DVD you don't
really want the burner to be in the attic or garage I mentioned above
where you can't get at it.

As I said: It depends what you want to do.

--
Cheers,
Daniel.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 15/05/2026 13:19, Daniel James wrote:

That narrows it down to Windows 10 or Linux (my Linux box has Linux
Mint xfce which I like).

If this is to be a server, I'd run it without a GUI desktop. Probably
even run it headless and manage it through SSH. No need to burden it
with a GUI layer that will almost never be used. Running it headless
means you can shut it away in an attic or garage where it can do its
stuff without getting in the way.

Linux is /possibly/ more secure (for now) than windows. But regardless
if you're using linux elsewhere, then save some maintenance headaches
and put the same OS on the server - and if it's public-facing, make sure
it's locked down and the firewall is configured properly.

FWIW I used to run freebsd as a main server, but stopped because of lack
of h/w support for the pi5 I wanted to use. Ironically though, I now use
a micro celeron box running the same (Mint) linux as my desktop - in
fact, I imaged my desktop then modded to get it up and running. I try to
keep the software roughly in synch. The single OS has been much easier
to manage. It runs headless, but if absolutely necessary I start up a
full gui under vnc (which uses far too much memory for normal use).

--
Mike Scott
Harlow, England

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 15/05/2026 12:49, Jeff Gaines wrote:

I have been playing with setting up a server for my home network on and
off for a couple of years now and I finally have one set up that I can access from the various computers and device on the network, it started
on one of my Gen8 boxes running Windows 10 but currently runs on an HP
Z230 with a Xeon processor (also Win 10). Network performance hasn't
changed but it's more responsive when carrying out admin tasks. It holds files used centrally and all my media which is fed to an NVidia Shield
TV Pro which runs Kodi.

I want to re-case the server but the Z230 is a bit proprietary so I have "won" a Lenovo TS140 on eBay which I know I can re-case since I did one
a while back and have a power adaptor and front panel diagram for.

Proxmox VE.

--
Adrian C

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 15/05/2026 in message <xn0ppt0rn2pkoq900r@news.individual.net> Jeff
Gaines wrote:

Anybody willing to chuck in any objective ideas while I wait for Royal
Mail to move the TS140 from one end of the UK to the other?

Just to follow this up..

Many thanks for the replies :-)

What I have done is set up the TS140 with Win 10 Pro and it is happily
serving files to the network and media to my NVidia Shield TV, runs
smoothly without buffering and I can find things.

However, there was another TS140 on eBay and nobody was really bidding so
I gave it a punt and got it for ?19.07 (plus postage) which is a bargain compared to some of the silly prices being asked. 8GB RAM, WiFi card and a little add on board which I think is USB. At that price I felt sorry for
the vendor but he has honoured the sale.

What I am going to do is to set it up as a server with exactly the same
H/W as the first one but running Linux Mint xfce. I will have to look up pretty well everything I want to do although I did manage with Linux on my N54L running Brasero for iso files (note to Daniel, I think "Braserio"
must be the Italian version :-)). It will be good exercise for my brain
which needs it!

Thanks again.

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
We chose to do this not because it is easy but because we thought it would
be easy.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 26/05/2026 14:40, Jeff Gaines wrote:

(note to Daniel, I think "Braserio" must be the Italian version :-))

Yes, naturally. :-)

Actually, of course, Brasero is a Spanish word meaning "Brazier" (a kind
of "Burner", in other words) ... for which the Italian is "Braciere" ...
but I like your version better!

Good luck with your new adventures into Linux. Maybe we'll wean you off Windows altogether in due course!

Linux was a kind of second-fiddle side project for me for about ten
years -- I remember buying SuSe Linux 6.4 in a box (a dozen or so CDs
and a couple of really quite good manuals) from the PC Bookshop in
Holborn in about 1998 -- and ran Gentoo on a media PC for a few years
before Microsoft pissed me off enough, somewhere in the Vista years,
that I switched to using it (Ubuntu Hardy Heron, then Debian Edgy)
full-time. Windows 7 wasn't enough to tempt me back, and Windows 8 made
me profoundly grateful that it hadn't!

--
Cheers,
Daniel.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 26/05/2026 16:37, Daniel James wrote:

I remember buying SuSe Linux 6.4 in a box (a dozen or so CDs and a
couple of really quite good manuals) from the PC Bookshop in Holborn in about 1998 ...

If after March 2000 can be called "about 1998", that is.

(Sorry, I meant to check the release date *before* posting.)

--
Cheers,
Daniel.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In article <10v4eoj$25kst$1@dont-email.me>, daniel@me.invalid says...

-- I remember buying SuSe Linux 6.4 in a box (a dozen or so CDs
and a couple of really quite good manuals) from the PC Bookshop in
Holborn in about 1998

I remember that bookshop fondly!
Amazon killed it, of course.

--
--
Phil, London

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 27/05/2026 11:52, Philip Herlihy wrote:

In article <10v4eoj$25kst$1@dont-email.me>, daniel@me.invalid says...

-- I remember buying SuSe Linux 6.4 in a box (a dozen or so CDs
and a couple of really quite good manuals) from the PC Bookshop in
Holborn in about 1998

I remember that bookshop fondly!
Amazon killed it, of course.

There was a similarly useful techy bookshop in the one of the back
streets of Cambridge, but I cant remember the name of the place - also
long since disappeared :-\

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Abandoned Trolley <that.bloke@microsoft.com> wrote:

There was a similarly useful techy bookshop in the one of the back
streets of Cambridge, but I cant remember the name of the place - also
long since disappeared :-\

I don't remember any such, but perhaps it was before my time. Galloway and Porter was good for random techy books (often too random). More recently I found a decent tech section at Books for Amnesty on Mill Road.

Theo

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In article <4Qv*ZzDHA@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>, theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk says...

Abandoned Trolley <that.bloke@microsoft.com> wrote:

There was a similarly useful techy bookshop in the one of the back
streets of Cambridge, but I cant remember the name of the place - also
long since disappeared :-\

I don't remember any such, but perhaps it was before my time. Galloway and >Porter was good for random techy books (often too random). More recently I >found a decent tech section at Books for Amnesty on Mill Road.

Theo

Galloway and Porter dimly rings a bell, but it was always Heffers for
me. One day I'll read that fat book on compilers I bought in 1985...

--
--
Phil, London

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 26/05/2026 in message <10v4eoj$25kst$1@dont-email.me> Daniel James wrote:

Good luck with your new adventures into Linux. Maybe we'll wean you off >Windows altogether in due course!

A progress report.

My œ19 TS140 is now in a Corsair Carbide-100R case.
It had Windows Server 2012R on it but unusable as I didn't have the
password, 20 minutes in the BIOS before I finally had permission to access
the machine.
Installed Linux Mint xfce on an SSD.
Was then stuck as I only had one cable to provide power to the motherboard (the new one doesn't plug in the Seasonic) so spent some time getting used
to it, getting notes together etc. by swapping power cable between 2 x PCs. Today the proper cable arrived with a new Seagate Barracuda 6 TB Internal
Hard Drive.
Fitted cable and drive, fired up, set up GPT partition and formatted to
ext4, created mount point (/mnt/MediaShare) and mounted drive. Used the
Disks utility to add it to fstab. Had to run Thunar (file manager) as root
to give myself read/write permission.
Shut down, popped my current 6TB drive in, re-booted and it's now copying
the media over.
When that is done I will have to do the same with a 2TB SSD for data and
the same for my archive.

Well pleased, many thanks for the help and encouragement, will no doubt be back with more questions :-)

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not
expect to sit.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 28/05/2026 11:56, Philip Herlihy wrote:

In article <4Qv*ZzDHA@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>, theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk says...

Abandoned Trolley <that.bloke@microsoft.com> wrote:

There was a similarly useful techy bookshop in the one of the back
streets of Cambridge, but I cant remember the name of the place - also
long since disappeared :-\

I don't remember any such, but perhaps it was before my time. Galloway and >> Porter was good for random techy books (often too random). More recently I >> found a decent tech section at Books for Amnesty on Mill Road.

Theo

Galloway and Porter dimly rings a bell, but it was always Heffers for
me. One day I'll read that fat book on compilers I bought in 1985...

Aho & Ullmann?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 28/05/2026 in message <xn0pqbfbiee1uy002@news.individual.net> Jeff
Gaines wrote:

My œ19 TS140 is now in a Corsair Carbide-100R case.

A further follow up.

Having added 3 x additional drives, portioned and formatted them and
copied the data over I seemed to be in business. However, the drives
weren't mounted on booting.

I had used a GUI utility called "Disks" to manage the mounting and looking
at fstab the lines didn't bear any resemblance to what I had found by Googling. I changed them manually, saved fstab, re-booted and immediate recognition!

I think I have taken my first step to my apprentice pilot's badge :-)

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In article <10vbt0i$40o6$1@dont-email.me>, andrew_d_may@hotmail.com
says...

Galloway and Porter dimly rings a bell, but it was always Heffers for
me. One day I'll read that fat book on compilers I bought in 1985...

Aho & Ullmann?

That's the one! Still out there: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Compilers-Principles-Techniques-Alfred- Aho/dp/0201100886

--
--
Phil, London

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)