First look at Windows Home Server

Yup, its built on Windows Server 2003, same grey installer, splash screen still says Server 2003, same stripped down, locked down OS. Windows Home Server (WHS) at this point seems to be like MCE, just an add-on to XP.

Looking around, it is starting to look like WHS is just a glorified NAS with some more bells and whistles. A few sites have mentioned that other than network shares, M$ will give you a domain address so you can access files on your server over the net, and appearantly even to control other computers on the network over the internet. Could be pretty handy.

Even M$ has said that WHS is really simplified, ment for mom sixpack to use easily, even adding HDDs will be easy. With the HP WHS offering, there are 4 hot-swappable HDD bays. All you need to do is insert a new HDD (SATA), and WHS will format and install the HDD for you. WHS is ment to be installed and forgotten, run headless plugged somewhere into your network. Right after the simple install, it is ready to go. WHS is also ment to be pretty easy on resources. HP will be selling a WHS box with a low enr Sempron and 512mb RAM, most of the price will be how much HDD space you have.

WHS also has its own RAID like set-up. All your HDDs get pooled into one storage drive. If you pull one drive, it is readable on other computers as NTSF format.


I will post more info and screen caps as I progress.


For a good read, check out
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/whs_preview.asp

blah would rather run apache in the background

I am actually planning on running Apache on the server once I figure WHS out a bit more and see what it can do, and what is available on this release. My ol Celeron 400MHz is doing HTTP duty right now

It looks pretty cool. I was reading into it a little more on the M$ website, looks like it will be available as a seperate piece of software as well as OEM through hardware purchases.


~ Gos

lets see mom sixpack set up apache, this isnt for people who know apache and IIS and ftp software, is not the point as ms said.

but what will mom-six-pack do with a server at home? I really see this for 2 markets, nerds/geeks and small home businesses; which most of the time can barely afford the two xp-home machoines in the fiurst place. Given I fall in to category 1 Ill take a peek at it.

I am really finding no use for this OS. I think it could be a good candidate for a cheap OS though.

The point is to have all your devices share one source for your media, and even access them over the internet. Maybe if it allowed you to host a website on it (say for family photos, or a blog) it might be a bit more useful.


I think this software has potential, but it is ahead of its time by about a decade.

I think this software is made for a demographic that does not exist. For the casual server user...? :/

Im not sure how it goings to turn out but I am keeping my eye on it as well.

Keep in mind that M$ has no plans so far to sell this as a stand-alone product. Only OEMs will get this to sell integrated with their boxes. Windows MCE was originally in this same situation. However MCE was eventually separated from hardware and made available as a stand-alone product.

I don't know if Home Server will eventually be separated or not.

Decent little preview on it here.

I'm not sold on this idea. The "cool" factor is there, but how many families are actually going to want to turn someone into the home network administrator to justify something like this?

I agree - ahead of its time.

ill just stick with my copy of windows server 2003 enterprise edition... i LOVE win 2k3... its very nice, not a resource hog (its less of a resource hog than xp) it has a newer kernel than xp and more features... but i find it funny that MS is trying to make more money off of some OS like this tyring to sell it to the "family" LOL

http://crunchgear.com/2007/01/08/windows-home-server-up-close-and-personal/


id much rather setup a lil computer my self.. be more fun

I'm downloading the WHS Beta 2 as of speak, finally!! (couldn't download it since it was available to me on Feb 26. turns out that M$ is sooooo monopoly that I can't use FireFox to download it!! when I load the same download page in IE7, it starts to download now!! )

saw THIS interview, sounds pretty cool to me (especially that I have hundreds of gigs (400+GB) of movie/tv series/mp3 files to share across my home network included my HTPC and auto backup that, what they said, doesn't take up lotta space!)

will try and see.....

downloaded mine, burned mine, and partitioning my system for dual boot tests before i decide to throw it in my file server.


EDIT****


Looks like i wont be using WHS after all..

there is no Windows Server 2003 X32 Edition drivers for the 8800gts, and i doubt there will be

Downloading it now. My media server is needing a format anyway.

Fr3@k3r said:

downloaded mine, burned mine, and partitioning my system for dual boot tests before i decide to throw it in my file server.


EDIT****


Looks like i wont be using WHS after all..

there is no Windows Server 2003 X32 Edition drivers for the 8800gts, and i doubt there will be

Click to expand...

use a lighter rig for server duty maybe? I dont think you really need to be using the top of the line rig as a server.

well i really dont like testing out new beta crap on my server cause you never know whats gonna happen.. which is why i test it on my regular machine for easy access and such.

Ahh I just use a test rig for stuff like this. Solely used to test out new and interesting OS and if applicable applications.

I dont like abusing my main rig for any reason so I tend to avoid loading the unknown onto it.

thats what i consider my rig... Gaming/Testing/Regular rig because i dont have another i can use.

pik4chu said:

but what will mom-six-pack do with a server at home? I really see this for 2 markets, nerds/geeks and small home businesses; which most of the time can barely afford the two xp-home machoines in the fiurst place. Given I fall in to category 1 Ill take a peek at it.

Click to expand...

Most non-tech people won't have a use for Home Server; and most technical people won't use it. Orphan.

Captain Newbie said:

Most non-tech people won't have a use for Home Server; and most technical people won't use it. Orphan.

Click to expand...

I don't think that it will be a raging success, but it won't be an orphan. WHS will be available mainly in stand-alone hardware products; selling it alone is an afterthought. This is made to drive the sales of very specific devices - small, probably headless boxes meant to allows home users to set up shared storage devices (with other features, of course).