First, please let me apologize if this has been covered somewhere that I haven't been able to find yet. I am fairly unknowledgable about databases in general, and have no clue about this particular problem.
I am the IT department for a company with about 60 users. We have Windows workstations, and a single Unix application server.
I want to set up a server, and have two primary applications for that server.
1) Basic file server, backup, etc.
2) There are two Access databases that we want to make available to the entire company.
I am trying to find out hw feasible it would be to use a Linux-based server instead of an MS based server. I don't want the hassles of license fees, and the infamous BSOD, and like the idea of using free software to accomplish what is asked of me.
Unfortunately, at least one of the Access databases I'm dealing with is used by a piece of Windows software that I cannot change to a Linux application without some costly programming fees.
Can I actually host a Microsoft Access database on a Linux server, accessible by Windows workstations? If so, what kind of setup do I have to use? Can I just set up a simple Linux file server, using Samba to provide access to it from the Windows clients, and have the MS access databases sitting on it, using the MS Access software on the clients to manipulate the database? Or do I have to convert the databases to another format to host them on a Linux box?
Any help recieved will be greatly appreciated.
