I have a debian home server right now, I'm using samba for my file server but I was wanting to stream my movies and music to my other computers. My family (the other users on the network) are NOT computer savvy, and to top it off they are using both Windows (xp) and Mac (Snow Leopard) machines. So I'm looking for software that is simple to use that will allow other operating systems to use it. I would think the easiest way would be to stream the music/movies through a home website. I have seen quite a few programs out there that stream music, but none for movies. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, several programs come to mind that you may like to look at.

Mediatomb is very popular for streaming video using upnp to share the content, it is readily available and there is lots of help on the net google it you will find a how to guide.

Another suggestion is mythtv, you can run a myth tv backend on your server and then install front ends on other computers inc windows as well as linux. The install is not the easiest but will pay you back with tons of of options, including tv streaming as well as movies music photos and web content, it even allows for new emulators.
I love myth and would recommend trying mythbuntu or mythdora on a live cd first.

For music streaming only I can't find better than ampache, its a keeper, web based stream music even, to your work place check it out.

Others to check out are, boxee and geexbox both make great media players for TV, not 100% sure about streaming to other computers though.
Worth noting is vlc media player is capable of playing streams from http, upnp and shares, possibly the simpleest option if you just share your media folders, and use something like automount on linx and map network drive for windows and browse the media.

Just my thoughts I am sure others will recommend their own experiences of media servers as well.

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I use MythTV to stream TV, music, and videos to other systems in the house. The user interface us simple. I have one connected to a TV in the bedroom that just uses a remote control and acts like a DVR, but with no actual storage space. It streams everything over the network, using NFS for music and videos, but using some other method for streaming the television shows.

Having said that, MythTV is really designed to be used as a media server for recording and watching live television. It has an online program guide and stuff for scheduling recordings and everything that can be accessed from any "frontend", and it requires MythTV software to be installed on every system you want to watch from. For what you want to do, I think it might be quite a bit more complex than what you want/need. Your idea of using a web server is probably a decent idea, or even just using your samba server might be fine as well. Either way, just having access to the files should be all you need. The desktop should know how to open a video file and play it without any special software.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll be checking those out soon. Simplicity is nice, and the ability to stream to linux, windows, and mac is a must. Again, thanks and I'll post back when I find the time to try them out.