[Lancaster] n00b!

[Dave Smith]

Hi all.

Just a few, not necessarily related, questions I have flying around my 
head that I thought I could seek some advice on!

Mainly, I'm seeking some reccomendations. When I get back to the UK I 
intend to finally sort out my home network the way I've meant to for the 
last 6 months but hopefully succesfully this time!

My ideas were to have one 'home' server hosting an intranet page and 
file shares, along with being a DAAP server for my music collection.
I can't see any obvious reasons why it wouldn't be, but is it possible 
to successfully sort all three running on the one machine? Any specific 
issues I should look out for RE: Server Machine Spec?
Presumably its easiest if I use SAMBA for the file shares (the 
connections are likely to be other Linux Boxes, Some Windoze boxes and 
maybe Mac OSX), Apache locally for the Intranet site, and then one of 
the OS DAAP server projects for the music.
Does anyone have any experience with the possible DAAP server software 
out there, and similarly any preferred client-side apps for the linux 
systems (The Mac and Doze boxes will most likely run iTunes). I was 
looking at DAAPD for the server side stuff and maybe AppleRecords or 
TunesBrowser client-side. Anybody have any knowledge or stories about 
either of these? To my knowledge, there's no XMMS Plugin for DAAP yet, 
but I have only been able to scan briefly.

Similarly, any favoured OS of choice for the server from anyone? I'm 
really wanting to get into using Debian and get to grips with that at 
some point, but do people favour anything else?

There were other things I was going to try and bombard you all with but 
I'll cross that bridge when I come to it....

Sorry for the list. I've just recently 'revived' my efforts with 
Linux/Unix after having a break of sorts (powered by my laziness/lack of 
time and willingness to play games...). At the moment I'm running OSX 
and YellowDogLinux dual-boot on a Powerbook. I'm toying with the idea of 
switiching full on to YDL or another PPC flavour while I'm away, ideally 
switching everything to the same setup in the end (ie running home PCs 
on the same Linux flavour, similar setup etc). As it stands I'm 
currently in the desert for a few more months so any and all reading 
material is useful!

Thanks in advance, apologies for the lack of 'flow' with the writing...

Dave