Save up to 50% on HP ProductsWindows Home Server off to production, gets new partners
Right on schedule, Microsoft announced that its Windows Home Server software is off to the presses. This clears the way for HP, Gateway, LaCie, Medion, and now Iomega and Fujitsu Siemens, (both also announced today, the latter in Europe only) to begin selling their Home Server-powered hardware later this quarter.
HP's Windows Home Server-equipped MediaSmart Server
(Credit: HP)If you're unfamiliar, Windows Home Server is Microsoft's attempt to solve the growing problem of fragmented media collections. Through an easy-to-use interface, you can organize and manage access to your media files (or any other kind of data) from one centralized location, rather than having to look through multiple PCs for your various photos, music files, and videos. Windows Home Server even has a Web-based client that will give you full read and write capability from any PC connected to the Internet.
Under Microsoft's current plan, it won't be selling Windows Home Server as a standalone software product. Instead, you need to purchase a full-blown server from one of Microsoft's previously mentioned hardware partners. The good news is that the hardware requirements for Windows Home Server are relatively modest. All you really need is a hard drive and the basic guts of a PC. The servers don't even need mice or keyboards. Unless you really load up on hard drive storage, we don't expect prices of the Home Server-equipped hardware to jump beyond that of a basic home desktop.
This message was not sarcastic.
Does this do something other than print and file sharing? perhaps the cool thing about this is that it uses fewer resources than other Vista based systems?
I am not trying to bait the Microsoft fans, just wondering what features this has that are new. (marketing?)
better way of getting all my media out to the living room.
Try again, Redmond!
The only thing new here is that it is a new attempt to remove more cash from unsuspecting users pockets.
This is a scam, nothing more.
Tell me why I can't use Linux with SAMBA to share my personal files with on my own private network and save a few hundred bucks?
debate? I'd hardly say this device competes with Apple TV or the
Apple router. Sure a combination of those two would allow you
to add a network hard drive and view media on your TV, but this
seems to be a different product. We don't know how expensive
or secure it is yet, so let's wait and see. I"m an avid Apple
advocate. now that I can use paralell's to run windows, I know
longer own a PC, I can do it all from my Macbook pro, which
simplifies things. However, I don't see how people are bashing a
product we haven't even had the opportunity to try out yet? I
definitely prefer my mac to windows, but I don't think that
means I have to hate everything MS puts out. A few people
posted that this the new home server is simple to use so I
assume they had access to a Beta version and although I'm sure
they must be power user's to be involved with the Beta, they
must be comparing it to running a standard MS Server version.
Anyway, my point simply is stop turning every article into Apple
vs. Windows. I prefer Apple, but windows isn't exactly terrible,
at least not to a power user who understands the needs for
security, updates and backups.
Office 2007 appears so far to have some nice new features
although I haven't spent enough time with it yet to get past the
learning curve.
Vista has some nice features although I'm just starting to play
with that for a small business client that needed some new PCs.
It definitely didn't get everything right though; finding myself
navigating way too many screens to do things that were all in
one place before. It's definitely a hog too, these are pretty
powerful machines with 2GB RAM and dedicated graphics cards
still seem to run a little slower than I'd like.
The Zune was a huge mistake, haven't used one, but the physical
design alone says that MS needs to stick with 3rd party hardware
vendors because it's a fat ugly brick. Consumers want the
devises they carry around all the time to slim and attractive, the
Zune is neither so I expect to end up in the discontinued bin.
But, home server has yet to have a "real" review, so let's wait and
see if MS hasn't finally come up with a good product. If it works
with my macs and has the features I want, I just might pick one
up.
"home server" when an external hard drive connected to his
network could probably be more than adequate to store his
music, pictures and other multi-media files. iomega for
example has 3 very nice looking units which you can easily
connect to your network. The following you'll find on the iomega
website, just look under Products / External Harddrives /
Network
quote:
"Low Cost: Network storage without the expense of a server
An UPnP A/V Media Server compliant with UPnP-compliant DMAs
Printer server capability with USB-attached printer
2 USB 2.0 (host) ports to add storage
High-speed Ethernet Connectivity
High Capacity: Available in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB"
- Insecure
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by bigpoohead
July 17, 2007 3:46 AM PDT
- Sorry but Server 2003 isn't the most insecure (its insecure, no such word as unsecure) O.S. on the planet, there are far more insecure systems out there. You may want it to be, the lemming that you are, jumping off any cliff Jobs asks you to. Alot of windows systems are compromised, due to poor user configuration, old or un-patched systems, but there are far more of them that any other system due to the fact that there are far more windows machines out there connected to the internet, not solely due to the O.S. being insecure. OSX, Linux, Solaris..etc all have security issues (you do know you have security patches for your O.S.?) but they are generally ignored due to their smaller install base compared to Windows. Notice how Safari, when it came out for Windows, started to get all these security vulnerabilities found, which were in the OSX version, but no one bothered looking before.
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