🚀 go-pugleaf

Stiaan wrote:

> Hi there,
>                 firstly I must tell you that what I'm asking you are new to
> me. So bare with me if this is a stupid question.
>
> I'd like to know if it is possible to have a Linux file & printer server
> with say 10 Windows 98 workstations connected to it. On the server they only
> need to share files & printers and maybe some other resources. Also they
> want to run a database (Sybase?) which all users must be able to access &
> update.
>
> Can this be done and how more or less should one go about.
>
> Best regards
> Stiaan

You have some very nice options available.

Samba is an obvious (as already stated) place to start.  File and printer
sharing provided by the Linux servers that I have set up has been remarkably
stable and enjoyable to maintain.

For the database, I have set up a number of linux servers that utilize MySQL as
a database server.  This works nicely with Microsoft-based workstations, as
MS Access can work with MySQL as a server by utilizing MyODBC (an ODBC data
source driver that installs on the workstations).  There are a couple of quirks
that are application-(MSAccess)-based, but all have so far been resolvable.

For example, Access seems to think its OK to sometimes leave unvalued fields
unpopulated (ie. not even setting the value to NULL), even though the default
value is set to NULL.  This causes a problem when trying to update the record
through ODBC.  The fix is to enforce that non-valued fields to be set to NULL.

If you need help in how to proceed with arranging all this and setting it up,
you can email me at msamudi@uswest.net and I can provide some additional
information.

Matt Samudio
msamudi@uswest.net