Windows Home Server Details

phorest writes "Perhaps Microsoft read the comments from the Slashdot community on Windows Home Server? In any event Microsoft is opening up WHS for users to construct their own system after all; though I'd like to see the price of this OS release before making the jump. From the review: "At the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week... Microsoft previewed its long-awaited Windows Home Server product, a Windows Server 2003 R2-based server for consumers that dispenses with the complexities of most Windows Server versions and provides the core storage, sharing, and remote access functionality that digital media and home networking enthusiasts require... Microsoft will make WHS available in two ways: Bundled with new WHS hardware and software-only, the latter so that enthusiasts can install the system on the hardware of their choice... If you're building your own home server, Microsoft requires a 1 GHz processor or better, 512 MB of RAM or more, and as many disks as you think you need. The company will support multiple home servers on the same network, but it's still murky how that will work."

Comments

IdiotProof-Lockup

[Constantine XVI]

I really think that MS needs to lock up WHS to be idiot-proof tight. If you need to put software on it (plugins for mediacenters, game servers, etc.) you should have to burn it to a CD, put it in the server, and then go back to the interface to see what you're going to install, and confirm it by pushing a button on the server. Yes, it's a hassle, but makes sure it's near 99% idiot-proof. Clicking through boxes is one thing. Having to physically push different things should set off alarms for someone

Basic AIDA, folks.

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Perhaps Microsoft read the comments from the Slashdot community on Windows Home Server?

More likely they are currently flooding the market with "educational" pieces designed to increase the public's awareness of a new category of product; its no coincidence that the forthcoming product will match what the public has been trained to expect of it in advance.

(Hint: look up "AIDA" as a marketing term sometime...)

New Apple Base station

[moofo]

By the way, the New Apple Airport Extreme Base station supports sharing USB 2 Hard drives on the network. 50 Users Limit and there is a small utility to put privileges.

That makes an almost solid state device to:

Provide wireless Access (N) in your home
Act as router (3 ports)
Share USB printers
Share storage

To me, it's a more integrated and "out of the box" solution.

I know, it can't serve webpages...

But still, it seems a little easier for laymen.

Re:New Apple Base station

[mspohr]

Yes, Apple always excels in design.

However, it is a closed system. As long as it does what you need (and you don't want a web server), it should be fine but the Linksys NSLU2 is an open system that can be customized to do whatever you want.

BTW, the Linksys WRT54G WiFi router also is open source and people have added an amazing range of capabilities. there are about five different open source projects customizing it.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRT54G

NAS anyone?

[Library Spoff]

I appreciate people wish to share photos etc online with friends and family.
The slashdot crowd take old pc`s and turn em into servers.

Surely the way forward for home users is networked storage that probably use less AC than a PC?
Especially as we are now seeing combined adsl-router-NAS with built in raid. Is there then less chance of getting owned than with a MS based system? I know server 2003 that this is based on is more secure than previous MS offerings, but still...

Re:First?! Hmm...

[CDarklock]

I really like all the things WHS says it will do, because it means I can put my mind on other things. I'm just not really sure how good a job it does.

Many of the things in WHS are things I've been saying I was going to do for years. "I'm going to set up a SAN for all our documents and pictures," I keep saying, "and I'm going to schedule nightly rolling backups for all the PCs in the house." Well, I just don't have time. But if I could go out and pick up a $1500 PC, click a few buttons, and be finished... I'd do it.

My major concern is the same as yours: will it actually do what I want? If it does, great, but what if it doesn't? At least if I buy $1500 worth of commodity hardware and cobble up a home-grown solution, I can make it do SOMETHING. So the hardware+software option looks like it might be a bad deal; I think I'll do better if I buy my own components with an eye toward the manual solution, in the event that the software proves inadequate.

Hey, I may work at Microsoft, but I'm not stupid. Since when is v1.0 of anything trustworthy? Screw the party line, I want my shit to work. I'll give it a fair shake, but if it rolls over and plays dead, it can stay there.

What does this do

[rsilvergun]

that I can't already do with share level access and the appropriate client application? Does it handle sharing removable drives better (i.e. mp3 players)? Will I be able to create NT domains with it? Will mapped network drives finally stop periodically vanishing?

I mean, really, does any home user need the kind of performance a networking OS brings? You're gonna have at most 10 computers hooked up to the darn thing. Now, otoh, it might be a cheap way to build a domain :).