Canonical Missed The Boat

Over a year later, my goals remain the same, but my methods have shifted. I titled this blog "Booting Linux" with the idea of 'booting up' Linux - learning how to use it, in other words. Instead, I will be giving Linux the boot and replacing it with Windows Home Server (WHS).

WHS is built on Windows Server 2003 (now two "versions" old); it's sort of a surprise that the WHS team hasn't migrated it to Server 2008 R2 (in-line with Windows 7 if you have a hard time with the Microsoft server naming). However, this allows WHS to run on older hardware. As mentioned below, I've got a 1.2 ghz Celeron hosting my WHS in the basement; it's not going to win any speed awards, but re-purposed hardware is the cheapest kind!

I've also abandoned the Media Machine for now - the S.O. disparages how it looks next to the TV. Perhaps a few paychecks later we'll be able to get back to it (especially with the upgrades Win7 brought to Windows Media Center). I did find a PCI-compatible video card for hardware decoding of HD media files. I think it was an NVidia 6600, but since this is pushed to the back burner, it's not really worth discussing. So, this blog will be dedicated to discussing my experiences with Windows Home Server.

Specs:

• 1.2 ghz Celeron
• 1 gig RAM (only 512 showing...I'll have to check on this)
• 3 Hard drives (as of now...): 40, 100, 500 (smaller on format) with an additional 200 gig in the near-future.
  

My original goals (via Ubuntu) included:

• FTP Server
• Music Server (Squeezeboxen)
• BitTorrent
• Remote Access
• Proxy Server

My new goals include the previous (minus the Proxy) and:

• Automated Backups
• Meebo Repeater
• Shared Files (media, photos, documents, etc).
• Possibly a centralized Outlook account for contacts.
  

With WHS, that boils down to:

• FTP-->Guest Accounts (Remote Access)
• Music Server-->Squeezebox Server (WHS Add-In)
• BitTorrent-->uTorrent Add-In
• Remote Access-->Native to WHS (more learning necessary)
• Automated Backups-->Native to WHS, with client installs
• Meebo Repeater-->Via program installation. Hasn't worked yet - more learning necessary
• Shared Files-->Native to WHS
• Outlook-->via Add-In
  

Despite all these easy-to-implement options, I think my favorite part about WHS is how easy it is to add to the storage pool, and to make files redundant. Just power down the server, slap in the drive, and on power-up, add it to the storage pool via the Home Server Console.

In the future, I'll be detailing installing of Add-Ins. So far, I've copied 100 gigs of music and about the same of movies and TV shows to the server. Watch for updates!

Update: I should clarify what I meant by this post title - I think Canonical still has a fantastic opportunity to create a customized version of Ubuntu to directly compete with WHS. I would gladly pay $50 for a support license for a Linux Home server.