Knoppix is the best distro I've seen.

I'm a newbie, but I'm learning fast. Tried slackware, didn't like my hardware, and package management sucked, so I chose Knoppix. Configured all my hardware on the initial install. It's the best. 'Nuff said.

I have been the computer teacher at a small, private elementary school in Santa Monica. We have a mix-match bunch of computers... IMacs, Pentium I's, Pentium 4's, PowerPC's, and the like. We're running almost every Windows OS possible (except Windows NT, but we do have a 2000 machine) and the macs are pretty much up to date with OS 8.5 or above ... although we do have access to OS X

Ok, my goal this summer is to get them all networked together to allow printer/file sharing, hard drive backups, and any other cool server stuff that I could do. I don't need to host a website, but I would like to be able to access each computer, perform maintenence, have the kids save work from their terminals onto the server hd, and be able to access it from another computer.

I just need a push in the right direction... is it possible to link the computers aforementioned together? Help me out with a HOWTO or some sort of online book. I'm reading the "Linux Newbie Administrator's Guide" and the "Linux Cookbook."

Help me out please