I just got my invitation for the Microsoft Windows Home Server beta today, so I ordered my DVD and away I will go. I could have downloaded the whole 1.75gb of data, but I didn’t feel like giving that a go today (read: lazy), so I shelled out the 10 clams for the DVD – good thing it only costs MS a whole 2 bucks to send it out to me.
Any way, since my server is only a single box – I was going to set it up to dual-boot, but since the data drive will have to be either NTFS or FAT32 for Windows, I think I am going to just wipe the drives, and see how it goes.
Ubuntu vs. Home Server
I will compare how easy Windows Home Server installs and gets all of my equipment recognized and functioning. The only driver I had to install was the nVidia driver for Ubuntu, and that was only to add more functionality to it, everything worked right out of the can – no secondary install for anything. Not my USB card, not my Creative sound card, network drivers – nothing. It all worked upon installation. I am guessing this will not be so smooth.
I am going to try and be objective as possible though, and make a ton of notes as I go through. I have about 8 million note books, so I should be able to dig one up for this purpose. Since everyone likes to write how-to’s and reviews of this stuff, so will I, that being said I will try to make it useful and objective.
I am really looking forward to installing Home Server and getting the server up and running on the network. I haven’t read a lot about it yet, and that’s on purpose. I don’t want to be jaded by anything other than my own hang-ups about what I have personally experienced with Microsoft. It’s already a love-hate relationship.
:: more to come….