Easiest Home File Server OS?

They all have to be on the same work group. And that's a royal PITA. If you're going to do that you have to have a windows OS.
If you go the free route then you have a Linux OS with the server setup layered over it. Setting it up is a bit of a pain but when it's done you have no money invested in it and any OS with the right software can access it.

If I go the Linux route which is the best version to go with?
 
Right, I had a few old machines I stripped down of parts and got rid of and now I am regretting it, What are the recommended specs for general home file server?
 
At the end of the day pretty much *any* major OS written in the last 10 years can function as some form of file server, and if you're not expecting blistering performance and don't need any features beyond "here's a network volume where I can dump stuff and get stuff", all will do the job pretty much identically.

However, as far as "one size fits all" solutions go, I'd recommend FreeNAS. The disadvantage is that not being a general purpose OS you can't really (well you can, but it's tricky) use it for much else - however since you're dealing with rather underpowered boxes, that may be a bit of a blessing in disguise. It's simple to set up, powerful, supports pretty much everything you could want or care about (and a lot more besides) and has been going for a while now (so is pretty darn stable.)
 
If it's just a file server (you can make it a print server as well if you wanted) then XP will work fine. All you need to do is setup shares. I was using XP for a long time as my file server OS. As my friend says, you can find XP product keys in your couch. :p Heck, if you need one I have an unused XP Pro key I don't need.

I decided to upgrade it to Windows 7 awhile back because I had an extra key. Now I picked up an actual server system and I'm in the process of setting up a domain with Server 2012.
 
If it's just a file server (you can make it a print server as well if you wanted) then XP will work fine. All you need to do is setup shares. I was using XP for a long time as my file server OS. As my friend says, you can find XP product keys in your couch. :p Heck, if you need one I have an unused XP Pro key I don't need.

I decided to upgrade it to Windows 7 awhile back because I had an extra key. Now I picked up an actual server system and I'm in the process of setting up a domain with Server 2012.

Yeah it would be mainly for file sharing, backups and sharing printers, Is there one that would work with both windows and mac?
 
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