Has anyone used Linux as a PDC that can offer their experience? I'm thinking about putting it in an office that has about 15 XP workstations currently in a workgroup.

I'm considering Ubuntu Server. I have read the below link, but would like some other feedback from users with experience.

http://www.howtoforge.com/samba_setup_ubuntu_5.10

Well it depends. Replicating an NT4/2000 style domain is very easy, but last time I checked, doing Active Directory with Samba was not nearly as mature. That was awhile ago, admittedly, so I would assume that some progress has been made.

In any event, the difficulty is going to be directly linked to what type of domain you are aiming for.

Just a simple domain controller that XP workstations can use to login to the domain and sync passwords with the network file server.

Anyone with experience doing this?

Should be no problem with XP provided they are Professional not Home. Have had a Samba PDC running now for several years, however, only with W2K machines - the XP machines are XP Home and I won't pay the upgrade price! There are some differences between XP and W2K in terms of Windows browsing, but the critical stuff in terms of defining Linux users, making Samba passwords for them and then joining the machines to the domain are the same.

I recommend reading the docs on the Samba site as they have step by step setups for common configurations and the section on Windows browsing I think is necessary reading.

I did that for awhile before fully migrating to a Windows Server. SAMBA should work fine as a PDC which can authenticate users/passwords and manage file/printer sharing. I used Ubuntu 6.06 LTS.

The only problem with using SAMBA was that you can't deploy out GPO's or software. If you don't mind managing 15 computers individually (in one site?), then that should work. It's a cheap way of managing accounts and file sharing.

I there.

I'm usualy choosing an Disto named IPBrick (http://vmn.pt/ipbrick/indexen.html) as PDC witch is very user friendly.

It has an WebAdmin to manage almost all features we need in an server.

Recentely I've migradet hundreds of users (usernames, pws, e-mail addresses, etc) from a Windows Server 2003 to IPBrick in seconds, with a csv file exported from Windows and imported to Linux.

Give it a try, but note that it isn't free...

In my oppinion is the best Linux Distro to Sys Admin how want to start working with Linux Servers.

I hope this will help you!

Best regards,
bigmig

PS - This post is almost the same as in annother Thread, but the question is very similar. Sorry to Forum Administrators.