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Ghostlobster's Blog

WHS....WHY?

Last night I was presented with yet another revelation of the obvious sort by Mrs. Lobster... 'Why do we need WHS?'  I had absolutely no response.

I set up the latest build on an older machine and went through the very basic steps to accomidate user authentication and shares and such.  Once complete, I proudly showed her this magic.  To be fair, I've never been a big believer in WHS myself, so I probably did not do the best job of selling it to her, however, I still can not come up with anything compelling that would make me tell my friends 'You gotta get some of this!'

So, aftr the install was complete, the exchange went something like this:

"Look hun...I've got Windows Home Server up and running!"
"That's nice, what does it do?"
"Well, for starters it gives us a centralized location for storage"
Now her eyebrows raised as she pointed at our family room PC, which currently has all of our music, photos, and other stuff stored on it and shared throughout the rest of the house "You mean like that one?"
"Well...yeah, but this is a server!" (That should seal the deal right there!)
"Oh, OK!  So you mean that we're going to be able to have that TV Tuner farm thing for Media Center you've been talking about?"  (Bless her, she pretends to listen to my rantings!) "You know, where we have that centralized machine and a bunch of clients all over the house feeding off of it?"
"Uhhh...well, not exactly.  But it's a server!  You know, user authentication and security stuff!" (I was getting desperate)
"Oh, so this makes our secured wireless network more secure?"
"Uhh, no, it has nothing to do with that!"
"Oh, so you mean that our current stuff is completely unsecure if someone manages to connect to our network?"
"Of course not!  All our network shares are authentication/password protected!"
"Oh...so, tell me again, what exactly does this thing do?"
"uhh....errr...it's a server!  You know...a real live server!  It does server stuff...like makes printers available to the other...YES, I know!  Just like the family room desktop does, I know I know!"
"So...why do we need this?"
I just sat there dumstruck...I had no answer...  She patted me on the head before going back to watch TV saying "I'm sure it's a nice server, honey."

Published Monday, August 27, 2007 10:13 AM by ghostlobster

Comments

 

Chris - Moderator said:

Backups and remote access?  Does Mrs. Lobster laptop ever crash or does she want access to your desktop from anywhere in the world?  Being able to rebuild a machine within 10 minutes is a great feature, and the main feature of WHS.  Being able to get easy access to your PCs via RDP is the other.
August 27, 2007 8:47 AM
 

USArcher said:

GhostLobster, here are a couple of other things to keep in mind...

- WHS not only offers to backup your PCs but also has redundancy capabilities in case of local WHS drive failure.  Sure you can do something similiar in a RAID equiped Media Center PC, but most consumers don't know how to deal with that, the extra cost and realistically don't think of it when they make their intial purchase.
- WHS is probaby a more appropriate backup solution for a small home business than backing up to your home entertainment Media Center PC.
- WHS units sold will use much less power/electricity than a Media Center PC
- WHS is a great solution for people who don't have/use Media Center.
- With WHS you are really using the device to its full capacity.  With Media Center PC tucked away in/near your entertainment cabinet you really can't effectively use it for personal computing...so you are paying for alot things that you aren't even using.
- WHS you have remote access to all your data on your WHS system from the internet.
- With WHS you can install a Media Center competitive solutions, such as SageTV to get similiar experience you have with Media Center.  And Frankly, Media Center days maybe numbered as IPTV services launch on XBox 360.  Perhaps in the future, WHS can be an IPTV gateway...eliminating the need for tuners.

...can probably mention 2-3 more advantages but I'm going to leave it at that.
August 27, 2007 12:01 PM
 

KevinBarnes said:

WOW... you didn't mention that your family room PC, which currently has all of our music, photos, and other stuff stored on it could crash and all those family photos would be lost? Hard drives crash all the time thats the facts of life. With WHS that family room PC with all the Pictures would automatically backed up so when it does crash you can rebuild your system with ease. Now you could always just have a USB hard drive and physically back up those files but that takes time and effort and you always seem to forget.... this does it automatically.  
August 27, 2007 4:40 PM
 

ghostlobster said:

Yup!  I stand corrected about the entire backup issue.  The truth of the matter, however, is that I backup my stuff regularly to DVDs using Nero Backup.
However, WHY's...err, I mean WHS's backup functionality is a pretty key point, one which I completely ignored.
Regarding access to the desktop from anywhere...well, I've already got that functionality with basic RDC and the multiple user hack.  However, remote access over the big I is not exctly a selling point.  Too slow.
I also admit, as I did in my original post, that I'm probably being a little less than fair to WHS primarily because I was absolutely disappointed in its lack of any MC functionality.  
My point is that for WHS and most end users, there really is not that much 'H' in it.  It's a server...we, as early adopters and people who love to tinker, like it because it's cool and it's new.  For the basic end user, there is no compelling WHY.

August 27, 2007 5:08 PM
 

Chris - Moderator said:

"My point is that for WHS and most end users, there really is not that much 'H' in it.  It's a server...we, as early adopters and people who love to tinker, like it because it's cool and it's new.  For the basic end user, there is no compelling WHY."

I completely agree with that.  Home Server is going to be a hard sale, and I don't think Microsoft will ship to many units the first few years.  They are going to have to figure out the best way to get to the market, because very few are going to go out and just buy one.  With PC prices always falling, I would likely to see OEMs add a Home Server to your options on a new PC.  Instead of selling me a 750GB hard drive upgrade for $280.00 (like HP does currently), sale me a Home Server with 500GB of hard drive space for $350.
August 27, 2007 6:40 PM
 

ARobinso0502 said:

This is one of those 20/20 situations... An person with network experience probably will not see enough need in purchasing WHS, while someone with less backup, centralized administration, installation and configuration of networked devices, etc. might think the easy of configuration and over-head administration to be a major selling point...
August 27, 2007 7:15 PM
 

poddie said:

I think ARobinso0502 hit the nail on the head.

All over the internet I see people who are network admins during the day claiming that WHS is the most useless thing and will be lucky to get double digit sales numbers... they have done the same thing with their Linux server at home by simply configuring a RAID5, downloading, configuring, and running 10 addon programs and issuing a list of about 20-30 commands that bear no resemblance to any English I know.

The simple fact that keeps escaping them is that they are not the primary target audience.  The whole idea is your Mom should be able to plug this thing in and get backups running without a huge fuss.  This thing is for all the people who don't know how to configure shares and backups properly.  This is for the people who don't know what they need to do to maintain their PCs safely.

I am excited about it because it should reduce the "friend and family support" factor for me.  The more of them I can talk into something like this, the less time I will have to spend continuously rebuilding systems and troubleshooting viruses.

The biggest gripe I have about WHS so far is the lack of any built-in anti-virus software.  If this thing is to truly be plug and play, this should be included on the machine from the start (OneCare would be fine).
August 30, 2007 11:22 PM
 

brittonv said:

I think there is ghostlobster has it right.  There is no compelling reason to get WHS.  People who know enough to need backup will be able to find cheaper ways to do it.  RAID5 is more efficient then WHS software Mirroring so Techies will opt to DYI.  

The one thing that would have made this a killer app is Media Center.  If it had Media Center as the "selling point" and the rest of this stuff as an add on this thing would be a must have.  As of now I can't really use my PC when it recording TV or someone is watching TV because the performance is poor.  (MS Flight Sim X)  When I rebuild my computer due to Windows root is inconvient to have my Media Center offline.  Apparently Media Center can't be added because of some Cablelabs issue.  I hate cablelabs they are complicating the world.  Hopefull DirecTV or Dish comeout with a HD Media Center add-on with out all the CRAP that CL requires.

WHS is so far off the mark that I will be very suprised if it even on the market Q2 of next year.  Unless they add some value to it.
August 31, 2007 10:23 AM
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