Windows XP vs. Windows 2003

[Kri77777]

I have been doing some small webhosting from an old computer running Windows XP. I have also considered turning the system into a network storage unit. I was talking to a friend about running windows 2003 for this purpose instead. The biggest advantage to this is I can install Exchange Server 2003. I can get the stuff really cheap through organizations I work with. My question then is what are some pros to using 2003 for this relatively simple stuff?

[Colonel]

Really? Not much. The only advantage would be being able to install things that have server 2003 as a requirement.

XP handles IIS just fine and any system can host a shared folder for network file storage.

Its not worth the extra time to configure everything ("Enhanced Internet Explorer Security", "Shutdown Event Tracker", etc.)

If you really want Exchange, then sure. Otherwise, don't bother is my advice.