Anyone familiar with Windows Server 2008?

[Annuit Coeptis]

Currently I have one old computer in my house that sits next to my tv and serves as a file server for my home network. I have it running windows seven pro. Most of what I use it for is just to seed torrents and host files on my network from two 700 GB external HDDs hooked up to it.

I get nagged by windows to restart after installing updates a lot and I don't like having to restart my host computer that often so I was wondering if installing a version of windows server on it would be worthwhile. It is a 32 bit version so the only version of windows server I could install on it would be windows server 2008 or 2003. Since 2003 is XP based, I can't figure out how to set up file sharing permissions. (I only want certain computers on my network to access certain files.) So I would be more likely to choose server 2008, but the problem with that is that it is vista based. And vista has a bad taste in my mouth.

My question is, should I stick with the windows 7 pro on my fileserver computer, or should I go ahead and install server 2008?

[///ViNcE]

Maybe stay, I've always found the Windows 7 & all that the best. Maybe even take a crack at Ubuntu too.

[AceInfinity]

Why do you need Windows Server 2008? I would stay with Windows 7 if I were you.

[Annuit Coeptis]

Maybe stay, I've always found the Windows 7 & all that the best. Maybe even take a crack at Ubuntu too.

Yeah, I wanted to try that too. I was dabbling with ubuntu server last night and I am trying to test it out on a different hard drive I have for my laptop but I couldn't get it to work. But yeah, now that I think about it, windows server 2008 is like me using an aircraft carrier to cross a stream. I am going to run some tests with windows home server 2011, ubuntu server, and maybe freenas if I am feeling up for it. I tried freenas a long time ago and found it very difficult.