News
Windows Home Server RC1 Released
Microsoft's first server aimed at the home market has reached the release candidate phase, and as such, is nearly ready to be pushed out the door.
- By Keith Ward
- June 12, 2007
Microsoft's first server aimed at the home market has reached the release candidate phase, and as such, is nearly ready to be pushed out the door.
Windows Home Server (WHS) RC1 is scheduled to be ready for download to the 100,000-plus beta testers sometime Tuesday, but as of 5:30 p.m. ET, no download was available on the Microsoft Connect page. The announcement was made on the WHS blog.
WHS is meant to act as a central repository for, and manager of, a home network. RC1 fixes bugs and eases setup and configuration of the server. The bug fixes were a big part of readying WHS for the RC1 stage. As of March 22, a grand total of 2,385 bugs had been reported with WHS, according to Chris Sullivan, a program manager on the WHS team.
WHS is not a stand-alone product; it will come pre-installed through third-party OEMs like Hewlett-Packard, with its MediaSmart Server. Those OEMs will also determine pricing, Microsoft said on its website, based on options like storage. Other vendors partnering on WHS include Gateway, LaCie and Medion.
As reported previously, software vendors that make the tools required to secure, back up and optimize any operating system are beginning to emerge are lining up as well, with plans to support Home Server by Diskeeper Corp. for its defragmentation software, F-Secure Corp. for anti-virus and other security functions and Iron Mountain for data protection services.
Microsoft said WHS is still on track to be released in the second half of 2007. The RC can be downloaded
here.
About the Author
Keith Ward is the editor in chief of Virtualization & Cloud Review. Follow him on Twitter @VirtReviewKeith.