[Snellfharer]

PeeCee's are cheap, so why waste a good Mac for a server?

I'm using ClarkConnect, a Linux distro that turns a PeeCee in to a dedicated server (with LOTS of features + firewall).
My box has been up for about 70 days and doesn't need a monitor or keyboard (since boot).

It even runs as a webserver with a free dynamic domain, se:
http://snellfharer.pointclark.net/ (no useful website thou)

You have to innstall "netatalk" to use it as an AppleTalk file server but from there it's pretty easy.
Just make a user in the webadmin interface and log in trough the servers IP as if it was a Mac.

More at: www.clarkconnect.org for the free Home edition.

Further, any Linux distro with netatalk can share Mac-volumes.
http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/

[JB72]

I think using a Linux PC as a server is a pretty common solution. It won't have the niceties of OS X, but for simple stuff it will be fine. Oh, and you could use Samba too, if you didn't need Appletalk.

I'm hoping if Apple makes distributed rendering available for the pro apps (FCP, DVDSP, etc.,) that a Linux version will be available.