I need to replace an old Novell network in our office. The Novell upgrade is too expensive, Windows NT/2003 has other certain drawbacks. With what little I know about Linux I understand it can be superb network server software. My network technitian is trying to encourage me to Windows 2003, but alas he doesn't have to pay the bills.

Is Linux a good alternative to Novell, or am I misunderstanding what Linux is? Also, looking into this site and others I see many different distributions of Linux. If Linux is a good alternative, how do I go about determining which of all of the distributions available would be best?

Well, if you like Novell as a company but wish to switch to Linux, why not try SuSE? It's owned by Novell, you can still use Groupwise (if that's your mail client) and it's good and stable. A Novell rep told me that they are porting a good number of their tools to the new system, so administering it should still be as easy.