I have an Italian universal horizontal mill (Mizal was the name) with a 2 axis universal vertical head on it. Used it for many years, basically in the vertical orientation. It had no quill, so not real handy for small drilling, but doable.
You don't want to be using the horizontal spindle to drill or endmill with because you can't see WTF is going on unless you're standing somewhere where you can't reach any of the controls. You can make it work when you have to sometimes, but it can be a PITA.
The old Van Norman that is rotting out here, it can "sort of" be operated from the front and from the rear.
In the front of the machine, you have the handles, and each axis has a handle that when pushed one way
engages the feed, and when pushed the other way rapids. There are duplicate handles on the backside of
the table, so you actually can see.
I believe the actual function of that, is that there can be 2 fixtures on the table. The guy on the front
side of the machine can run a part on the right side of the table, while the guy on the back of the machine
is loading a part on the left.. The the guy in the back can run his part, while the guy in the front
reloads his.
Old school production, its a '53. The only reason I have it is because my grandfather worked at Van
Norman in the early 50's... Other wise I wouldn't have bought it.
I'd much rather have something vertical with a quill. A horizontal is really really fricken
handy when you NEED IT.. Otherwise its kind of a boat anchor. There is a reason you can get
'em cheap.. I haven't looked in forever (don't really care), at this point you might have
a hard time even finding them, and they still probably go for nothing.