UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

"Day to day networking needs" is not very specific and do very little to describe your application environment. By your reply it sound like you want office-automation file and print services for your PC users.

The most robust way to accomplish this is to load Linux on the server and to set up samba . This is much cheaper and much more robust and flexible than using a W2K backend server.

You do realize that @ 200Mhz, even with 4 CPU's, Windows 2000 will be nearly unbearably slow? I would HIGHLY recommend switching to Linux or FreeBSD. I'd recommend Netware, but Netware 4 is about to be unsupported by Novell, and your server doesn't have the beef to hack a NW5 install (which is nearly as bad as 2K now). With PPros, you'll get very high performance out of Linux/FreeBSD (w/Samba), but you will be in a mire with Win2K (which has a minimum spec of :
133Mhz Pentium or better
64Mb RAM or better
1 Gb install partition)

Ahh, I've been looking at this all wrong here. From the first post, I was kind of assuming it was a "play" box for him.

Still though, I guess my tongue-in-cheek reference to Linux might still work. Linux talks very well with Novell, even on the network level (as opposed to the application level). It will talk to / act as a print server, file server, etc..

Samba is a great way to go, IMO.

Is there anything more specific you needed out of this machine?

First of all, many thanks to all of you who posted and are posting to this.
Forgive my stupidity, how do Linux and Novell coexist on the same server? The big thing I have to keep in mind here, is that I am forced to stay with Novell. The accounting software that we use is compatible with Novell and certain version of Windows, but not any flavors of Unix. This is my primary concern, being able to store and retrieve files and print from the server SEAMLESSLY, when the change occurs.
Rather than trying to answer my questions here, any links on the web would also be appreciated.
My knowledge of Linux is infantile at best. I have tried to load several flavors on my various home computers with some success. However, the thought of using it in a business server application is very sobering...

Well, Novell Netware would be great on that box. 4.11 was designed for that kind of environment (ppro's, etc), so it should be rather responsive. Netware 5 will work, but will be much less responsive.
As far as unix/linux go - if the shoe fits, wear it, but if you don't have much experience with them, I don't think that trying to push them onto a needed production server would be a good idea.
On the other hand, with that hardware, Windows2000 would not be very usable - slower than just about anything else you could put on there.
I'd stick with Netware 4.11 if possible - a VERY nice, stable and decently robust NOS. And if you already have Netware in your network, it's got that as an added benefit.