I've got an Ubuntu Unix server at home to hold my mail, photos, music etc.
The wife & kids access it from their Windows PC, I rebuilt my PC as a Unix machine months ago and have had no reason go back to Windows since.
As others have said, it may take you time to get wireless drivers, graphics accelerators, etc. working and if you're not a hands on PC techy then you will probably need to find a friend who is to help you.
But once it's all up and working you will find it to be very reliable.
RC