While I think Windows
Home Server will be a great product, we have seen that it’s lacking good
Media Center integration based on what been released so far. I’ve said that I think it would be amazing to
see this product integrate tuners into the product and basically make it the
do-all Media Center Server of the home.
Something that I didn’t really talk about is the market that
would be interested in a device like that.
If you are reading this right now, you are the market. However, the market outside of us and home
integrators are not going to bite at what we want to see. Furthermore, it’s going to hard to get the
market Microsoft is going after interested in Windows Home Server in the first
place. Microsoft employees have even
said that it’s going to be a hard sale, and that users like us will likely be
the ones to have to warm up everyone else to storing files in a central
location, remote access to their files, etc.
As I’ve said before, one of the great things about Media
Center is that there are so many ways to use the product. For the most part, you can decide how you
wish to use it. Whether you want a PC in
every room, or you want a PC in the Living Room with Extenders everywhere else,
or a PC in your Office and Extenders everywhere else. You can decide what’s best for you, and to a
point that is going to be a problem for Microsoft. Our part of the market already knows how they
want to use the product, and those opinions are mixed. When Microsoft makes changes, this might put
out part of the market that has already accepted the product, so this must be
done very carefully.
Windows Home Server with true Media Center integration would
be a great product and I’d buy it in a second, however I really can’t think the
rest of the market will grab on the same way I would. Having said that, with how many new product
divisions Microsoft seems to keep creating, why not focus on both sides of the
market and create a new division to focus on the server aspect of Media Center.
Cross Posted from Chris Lanier's Blog at
http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/