Microsoft Windows Home Server Beta 2

After hearing Paul Thurrott waxing lyrical about Windows Home Server on the (rather good) TWiT podcast (does that mean the same in the USA as here?), I decided to sign up for the beta… and this morning, it was accpeted!

The installation DVD is now, slowly, downloading… it’ll be interesting to see if Microsoft can pull something out of the hat with the power of a Linux server and the familiarity of Windows – and if it runs on a VIA MiniITX-based system, all the better!

Initial thoughts:

• Currently, the system has a full Windows GUI – but the final product is being talked about as being entirely headerless. It’s a shame we don’t have that now, and I hope Microsoft don’t renege on this concept… I’ll be fascinated to see a fully working edition of Windows without a reliance on having a flashy GUI running.
• Windows Home Server is currently a 1Gb DVD which requires a 10Gb system partition to install onto. I guess that some of this will be used as a cache for metadata and downloaded updated – but it’d be much nicer if WHS could be pared-down (and made to boot to a read-only system partition) so that it could be installed onto a compact-flash card.