n00b hlp - ubuntu and sharing files with windows XP

[Jamesmoo2090]

i have a bunch of n00btastick questions (i never used linux before).

My wife likes to bit torrent anime, so we have an old Dell p3 laptop running WinXP 24-7 downloading anime.

basically i want to install linux on it, i was thinking of ubuntu.

now here are my questions:
1 - if i install linux, and i have files in it (finished torrents), can they be shared with a WinXP machine?
2 - also, not only shared but can you, over the network and from a windows machine, delete files and such on the linux machine? (kind of like when you have 2 winXP machines on a network and you set them sharing to read/write, so you can delete and copy files)
3 - does it require special programs to be downloaded to accomplish this?
4 - what is a good torrent client for linux?
5 - and last.... how do i install all that?

[dkeav]

you want samba for the filesharing, i dont know about the bittorrent client thats kind of up for grabs, many like azureus i actually prefer the python scripts or a new gtk based app called deluge

as far as samba goes there are tons of tutorials and questions been answered on the subject, just search

[Parcival]

now here are my questions:

And here my answers - basically what dkeav said, but structured in your fashion:


Yes
Yes
Yes, you need samba and to google for a samba tutorial. You can also go to this boards helpfile library.
I don't know because torrents are illegal in Switzerland (unless free content is being shared). You should check their status for your country, too.
Once you have installed a Linux distribution, learn how to use its package manager. By the help of the pm you will be able to download the samba server software. Once that's done, configure it according to the tutorial.