After 3-years in the making Windows Home Server has been sent to manufacturing. It was tested internally by 1,000 Microsoft employees which eventually grew to more than 100,000 public Beta testers. It was supposed to be sent to the manufacturer on June 22nd, but it apparently suffered from some minor delays.
So why would you want to use Windows Home Server? Here are four reasons that Microsoft has outlined:
- Protect the things you care about
Keep all those digital memories safe for future generations with features like automatic daily backups and full system restore. - Connect with your friends and family
Share your photos, music, movies, and other files from a single, central location that everyone in your home can get to. Friends and family can see and share any files you want, whether they’re in another room or another country. - Organize everything all in one place
This smart hub helps your family organize all your shared files in one place. Windows Home Server cuts down on clutter and brings order to digital chaos. - Grow into the future
You can add more space easily whenever you need it, so no more hard choices about what to keep and what to delete. And new products and services will be added as Windows Home Server keeps growing and getting better.
The biggest benefit that I see is having a central backup solution for all of your important documents, photos, and videos. Right now I’m running a copy of Windows XP Home to retrieve and backup documents from three other computers. Having a designated Windows Home Server computer, such as the HP MediaSmart Server pictured above, would make doing things like this effortless.
I also like that you can access your files from anywhere using a custom web address that you setup, which would look something like cybernetnews.homeserver.com (where cybernetnews is the username you choose). At that address you would be able to access and manage your homeserver, and I find doing that a little complicated in consumer-based versions of Windows.
The operating system will first be available to the OEM partners (Fujitsu-Siemens, Gateway, HP, Iomega, Lacie and Medion) who will make devices that use Windows Home Server. These devices are said to be released later this year just in time for the holidays. Maybe Santa will put a Home Server in my stocking! 
Also, in the next few months there will be a 120-day evaluation version as well as a system builder version (for those of you building their own Home Server). So we’re still several months away from seeing this in the hands of consumers, but it’s getting there!
News Source: Windows Home Server Blog [via All About Microsoft]
I am one who is looking forward to Windows Home server and will be buying one as soon as I can after they are out.
I just have way too much digital media that I would hate to lose. It is a pain to keep backing it up manually.
It will also be nice to be able to expand the storage as your needs arise.
Having one central place for everything will be nice as I currently now have stuff on my desktop as well as portable hard drives attached via USB 2.0.
Pretty neat idea, I would get one if I didn’t know how to make my own using free/open source software. Either way this would be a huge hit for Microsoft if they market this thing right and the PC manufacturers (like HP) have a killer price on these.
It’s an interesting idea – though I would prefer to make my server rather than get one pre-built. But I guess it isn’t aimed at me, it’s more for families going forward with a couple of PCs networked together, who all want to use and share the same stuff like they could when they were all on one system (and because Vista’s networking stuff is still slow and dundery).
I’m also pondering whether to get one. They would definitely be nice since you can swap out the drives as needed.
Yes, they will definitely have a big market for this. I think it would have been better if this sort of stuff was out several years ago (I read that the idea came up in 1999 to build something like this but got rejected). Of course storage is so abundant now that it is more affordable.
I’m pretty much the same way you are, but this is appealing because it is small and compact. They aren’t really full-blown computers which means they will take up less room than a typical desktop PC and offer a lot of storage bays.
For me, I really do not have the time to go through learning all that I need to know about Linux to setup my own. I also expect that these should be relatively cheap with a smaller amount of hard drive space.
With the ability to add drive space and the low cost of drives now, it would not take long to save up to add additional storage capacity.
I have been Beta testing the Homeserver and I like it a lot. It simplifies the whole process of sharing files and makes backing up your workstations very simple and routine. Adding storage space is also very simple and straightforward with all the hard parts handled by the OS. I am hoping that the Beta testers get some kind of deal on the final product because I really would like to keep this around.
I don’t think that the Beta testers are going to get anykind of deal. They’ve never done that for public testers with any version of Windows, but if you’re part of the closed testing group (typically about 1,000 people) you would get a free copy.