I’m trying to have my desktop handle files and evolution data, sort of as the “server” with offline capacity while I travel.
Does anyone know if I need to install a linux server distro, or is Mate fine and I can tweak it to handle its semi-server role?
Thanks,
In my opinion Ubuntu MATE will be just fine. The only “problem” is that it has too many packages preinstalled. So for something lighter I would prefer to install ubuntu base using netwrok installer (better use network installer than ubuntu server if you want to install a GUI afterwards) from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/alternative-downloads and then I would install:
sudo apt install xorg
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends ubuntu-mate-core
Then I would install any additional packages needed. You can see some light GUI options here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/53822/how-do-you-run-ubuntu-server-with-a-gui/. You can see what packages aren’t installed if you search for ubuntu-mate-core and ubuntu-mate-desktop at http://packages.ubuntu.com/ .
Wow thanks Thanos. It sounds like something I will check out. I would rathyer keep Mate on both. Maybe I need to work on Samba or another network protocol. Any ideas?
Basically I want to the desktop to act as the file and Evolution “server”. I guess I can do it with Mate. Hope I can 
To share files you can install samba and/or caja-share for easy configuration. Keep in mind that smb protocol is for local share only, for access through internet you will need something different
Take a look here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/16.10/ubuntu-help/nautilus-connect.html
and
http://www.howtogeek.com/192074/5-ways-to-access-your-pcs-files-over-the-internet/
I have no idea about evolution…
Yikes, I tried and run into configuration problems. I couldn't edit the config file in samba and caja-sahre hasn't worked.
Laptop and desktop are both running latest MATE.
I'll check out your links. I'm looking into NFS. It seems to be the best solution, if I can make it work.
I have written these notes for my samba configuration that I use at my ubuntu server machine. I don't know if the force user= YOUR_USERNAME is a "clean" solution, but it's the only way I can make samba work. Hope that helps. 
If you want to share folders without password open /etc/samba/smb.conf with
administrator rights and change it as described:
-Under [global] add the line (if it's missing) netbios name = “some name like your
PC name”
-Under ###Authentication### change (or add if missing) security = user
-Under ###Authentication### change (or add if missing) map to guest = bad user
-for each folder you share add the line force user = username (where username is
your username).
Thanks I’ll try, but I’ll use user passwords. I’ll figure it out.