Recognition and buzz around the home server (lower case) category continue to grow. Interesting to see this story last week in which Sony CEO Howard Stringer says one of Playstation's personas is as a home server.
If you haven't seen it yet, the official Microsoft.com Windows Home Server home page is up and running. HP also has a preliminary "coming soon" site for MediaSmart Server.
Steve Wiseman over at IntelliAdmin adds to the growing number of Home Server reviews. He starts his 3-part walk-through of the product saying he was skeptical at first, but "so far it is the perfect balance between simplicity and the needs of the user."
Robert McLaws at Windows Now details how he built his Home Server system for under $500. McLaws calls himself an online pundit who's barely old enough to buy alcohol. Home Server definitely has its fans within Generation Y. The other day I had the pleasure of meeting one of the top non-MS moderators on the Home Server Forum. He's all of 15 years old.
Enjoy the weekend. Spring has sprung in Redmond.
J
The goal is to ship a great product with the bugs fixed, providing a great experience to our customers, and that is what we intend to do with Windows Home Server.
We really value user feedback, which is why we’re being very transparent and encouraging this feedback through the beta program. This is what allows us to fix any issues that may occur early on before the development of the final product.
To be clear, this is a beta. We have bugs and we’re fixing them every day. In fact, we closed over 100 yesterday. Bugs are part of the process and being informed on them is what allows us to make great software.
I have been in the software business for more years than I care to admit, and bugs are all part of the process. Thanks to the community for all of the great testing and the great comments on the blog.
t.
Very detailed review of Home Server on Techgage here. Maybe the most in-depth I've seen yet. Reviewer Colin Huckstep says Home Server is in many ways a "NAS device with a brain." Nice turn of phrase. He also notes we're making a "valiant effort at getting home users to start doing regular backups." Amen. Our research shows a majority of PC users suffer from backup guilt, as we say. They know they should, but they just can't make themselves do it one PC at a time. And restore isn't always, shall we say, a rewarding experience.
Longtime industry observer Rob Enderle posted an interesting piece on EE Times suggesting MS and some of the other usual industry suspects are quickly encroaching on the cable industry's domain. He critiques all the players (as usual), but calls MS the "potential game changer" and says Home Server's centralized storage capabilities could provide what others lack...calling them "very interesting and arguably best in class." Pretty high praise from a smart, tough customer.