James, VFP data and apps running from a Linux Samba share work just fine. I'd recommend that you dig out an old P3 machine that you thought was over the hill, then download Ubuntu Server and install it with all the options selected so the server has a web server, database, email server and everything else you can imagine. Installation consists of selecting options after which it is automated and you won't stress the machine by installing everything. Then I like to install Webmin (google it) to manage the server from a browser including setting up Samba shares that are visible on the network same as any other Windows shares, backups, user privileges, ftp services, whatever you need. It's really very easy. If you prefer you can install Ubuntu desktop in which case you get a nice GUI, but that's not necessary for a server.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
