[shreader]

>snip<
After playing with this edition for no more than a day, it’s clearly no where near finished and stands in at the fourth community technical preview at this stage. But the potential is huge, and I genuinely see this as a fantastic solution for house-sharing students.

It only comes in 64-bit as it is based on Windows Server 2008 R2, the server system designed to support Windows 7. It requires at least 120GB to install and the download/installation package comes in at just over 3GB.

The most fun I had was through the the remote web interface; allowing you to remotely view your files, documents, music and videos from anywhere else in the world with an Internet connection.

The web interface looks and feels like Windows Live Home (wave 4), and when playing music or video acts between Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center. While this build is an early one, they have this functionality in place already and can only expect bigger and better things.


More at: http://blogs.zdnet.com/igeneration/?p=4025

[mnemonicj]

It requires at least 120GB to install...

Is this a typo? 120GB is a lot of space, especially if you want to test it out on a virtual machine. I think I only have about 60 GB of space for all of my virtual machines.

[jbullard]

Should probably state 10GB or 12GB as in the system requirements for Windows Server 2008 R2.

[shreader]

It may have something to do w/ the storage space requirement, not sure though.


Edit The old WHS specs I found from 2007 say:

Minimum system requirements are quite low: 1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 80GB of free space on the primary drive, and an Ethernet connection.

[yeshuas]

the 120 GB sounds right to me for the new WHS Vail, as I beta tested WHS and soon ran out of space initially since it did not delete the old backups as it was suppose to at first

[NT50]

After my last go aroudn with WHS I don't think I will be out buying this one like I did the last. It was a constant crash all the time for me. It was not near as dependable as the workstation was and I do not like the idea of software RAID. It woudl be best to just setup a Win Server 2008 and find ways to make it work the way you want it..... imo.

[mnemonicj]

I agree, Jeff. After getting into server operating systems, I have taken the red pill and can no longer backtrack to a glorified NAS. I think it is a great solution for anyone that wants central file storage in their home and the best thing about it is that you can put WHS on an old computer and it will run just fine. Granted, it will run just fine after they patch the bugs.

[NT50]

When they start patches is when I started crashing.

[imnuts]

I'm using the current version as a trial on my old computer that I got originally for college and it works great for what I need. I haven't had any issues with it, though there are some things I can think of that I'd improve upon. I'd really like to get a small low power system, possibly a 64-bit Intel Atom system, with a load of storage to use as a WHS. To bad I don't have a spare 64-bit system that I could use to test this potentially. I wonder what all will change compared to the current available release.

[shreader]

There isn't much info on what is changed, yet.

From Wikipedia

Windows Home Server V2 will be built on the Windows Server 2008 R2 code base[3] (it's predecessor having been built on Windows Server 2003) and will only support 64 bit hardware. Windows Home Server V2 will come in two editions, Standard and Premium, Microsoft has not commented on the feature differences between the two editions[3].

No new features have been announced by Microsoft, but reportedly will include additional entertainment capabilities[4] including web-based media functionality[5] and an 'add in' feature with an app store[3].

Speculation by technology columnist Mary Jo Foley that 'Vail' will integrate with Windows Media Center prompted the response "Time will tell" by Microsoft Windows Home Server Product Planner Todd Headrick.[4]

Other changes denoted from Microsoft's want ads for the Windows Home Server Team include improving the user interface, including integration with the Media Center and Live Mesh user interface.[6]

Edit: in my first post there is a link to a bunch of screenshots to view of WHS "Vail".