Power Mac G5 as home server

We have several macintosh computers in our household, which we all use. This is fine in principal, but we find that our files tend to get mixed around between computers, and some files are on one one computer, while others are on another. Having recently replaced my Power Mac G5 Quad with a shiny new eight-core Mac Pro, and talking to a friend of mine who knows a bit about computers (although only windows computers), I have decided that I want to try to use the G5 as a server, so that we can store all of our data on there, and log in as the same user from any computer in the house. The only trouble is, I don't know how! Can this be done at all?

Aside from the Power Mac G5, running 10.4.11, and the Mac Pro on 10.5.6, we have a 1.25GHz G4 iMac running 10.2.8, a 1.8GHz iMac G5 running 10.3.9, and a 2.4GHz Aluminum iMac running 10.5.6. Will having different versions of OS X on each computer be a problem? Will having some Intel and some PowerPC macs be a problem? And will I need to purchase a copy of OS X Server, or can I do this with the standard Tiger installation?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions,

Rob.

Will having different versions of OS X on each computer be a problem? Will having some Intel and some PowerPC macs be a problem? And will I need to purchase a copy of OS X Server, or can I do this with the standard Tiger installation?

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No having different versions of OS X will not be a problem. Having different processors (Intel & PPC) will not be a difference because both support AFP.

Purchasing a copy of Mac OS X server could benefit you but it is hard to recommend because of its high price tag ($500+). This would allow you to setup an open directory/workgroup to allow anyone to log into any computer on your network. This would also let you automatically mount a Home folder for all users that is hosted on the server. More information on how to setup Mac OS X Server is available here.

However this could be done on Tiger (I think). All that would be needed would to allow a folder on the hard disk to be shared over the network. Then have anyone who needs their documents just connect to the remote computer and download/upload the files they need. This would be a good setup if you want to spend as little money as possible because it should work with all the existing hardware/software that you have.

My recommendation would be to setup the PowerMac G5 on the network and mess with Tiger to see if it will suit your needs. If it does not then I would suggest looking into Mac OS X Server (10-client).