The words about the the main thrusts of Microsoft lately, Vista and patent litigation, have been quieting some, as people await the judged effectiveness of the beta of Service Pack 1 for the former, and the fireworks expected from the latter. In that softening din, people are starting to speak up about the recently released Windows Home Server. The next software revolution from Redmond has gotten no real knocks from the press, and the ‘new’ product has certainly caught on with the tinkerers, as there already are many add-ons, to help patch the holes Microsoft left in it.

The corporate minded writers, like Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, from ZDNet, question the need for WHS, as the sophisticated user will already have a backup system in place, and that, according to Microsoft, is the primary purpose of the software. The problem, as pointed out in the fairly thorough review of WHS on Ars Technica is that the capabilities to restore, after a problem, are limited at best. On the one hand, it is doubtful that the home user will be able to diagnose any problems with the drives, as the Ars article showed. Also, the ability to recover seems to be very, very limited in certain circumstances. Somehow the very last thing I want is to have a false sense of security about my data.

If, as the article on ZDNet posits, home users as a group are resigned to loss of information as a part of life, then I suppose the ability of the WHS server product to actually serve up content, and make sharing of files across the internet easy, it can be classed as a success. It does seem strange that it is necessary to have a $200 product to do this, when any Linux distribution will do a better job of what the product purports to do, and the entire $200 will probably not be necessary to get a local ‘geek’ to set up a stable instance on your hardware, and show you the rudiments of administering it.

This is not a slap at Microsoft, but a query by me to ask why so much functionality has been left out, and that the core function is not really useful in many situations. It is a product that, like Vista, I want to like, but I feel that the customer is being asked, at once, to be beta tester, financier, and possibly developer for the project, which Microsoft has not been able to finish.

If you like to tinker, and are willing to bet you won’t have to rely on a back up of the server to restore its function, WHS is probably for you. If you want to rely on proven technology, and get that the best way to safeguard data is spelled R-A-I-D 1, then a Linux setup, using free software, a small amount of geek help, and a hardware solution, including a 2nd hard drive, then your $200 can buy a large SATA drive, to go with the one you already have.

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[tags] Microsoft, Windows Home Server, Linux, backup solutions, RAID 1, hardware solutions [/tags]