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"Free and better alternatives"

I'm wondering what makes you an authority on why those products are better? Have you used WHS? Are you a WHS expert?

Personally I'm not an expert either, but I guarantee you that WHS works better on a Windows network than any of the solutions you mentioned. And 200 bucks? Who doesn't have 200 bucks laying around?

"And 200 bucks? Who doesn't have 200 bucks laying around?"

Probably a lot more people than you might think.

You might be surprised. When I started my current job they had a file server that doubled as a graphic artist workstation. Since that was failing miserably and was built with horrible components, I built us a server with proper RAID and backup and such.

At first I set it up to use Windows file sharing (given, not Windows Server) to share the about 80GB of graphic files (which have since been organized into folders, thank you. that took me a few days). It took about 30 seconds to load the folder if it hadn't been accessed lately. I installed Arch Linux on the same hardware and shared it out with Samba. It loaded up in 2 seconds and instantaneously after that until a reboot.

I'd like to add OpenAFS to that better free alternatives list. I'm going to be moving over to that on my home server as a trial, I just might move over the server at work. Replication and transparent access ftw!

I don't understand the economic sense of a dedicated home NAS that doesn't also function as a media center. What do you think a home NAS is for? Important documents? No, it's a media hub, and it makes no sense to keep the storage separate from the input and output.

I'm more interested in the recent developments in the LinuxMCE project, which is to be a complete 10-foot solution for KDE4. Not only is it designed to be a combination HTPC/DVR/NAS, but it also features home automation (lighting, security, etc) and a terminal server for streaming media to other PCs and set-top thin clients on the home network.

Now, if we could have OCUR (CableCARD) drivers for anything other than Windows Vista, I'd be quite happy. But I guess a pair of digital cable boxes isn't the worst thing in the world.

I used to work for an organisation that does full end-to-end home, car, boat and industrial security from concept/R&D through to manufacturing, sales and support. The organisation has 30 years of experience.

I was involved in the R&D dept writing software and whilst I would fully support an open product to achieve the goals of home and security automation, it's a very ambitious, complex and risky set of goals that will take a very long time to fully develop, achieve compatibility and simply "get right".

I wish it the best of luck, but I'm not getting too excited about this aspect of the project.

"I don't understand the economic sense of a dedicated home NAS that doesn't also function as a media center."

The rest of your post indicates that you're interested in Linux solutions and don't really care about WHS at all, but for the other readers, here's info on using WHS as a media center.
http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2007/08/16/integrating-windows-home-se...

"- Samba/NFS with any linux or *BSD"
This is for the HOME market, not the geek market. As such this is not an option. Idea is simplicity...Samba/NFS is NOT simplicity for the non technical user. Anyone attempting to sell a Samba solution at Best Buy is going to be in for a huge headache.

"- FreeNAS (http://www.freenas.org) and others listed "
While I do use FreeNAS at the office, I see no place for it at home. Mind you FreeNAS is still extremely immature (they still do not have even SNMP). This again, while being a nice geek toy is in no comparison to a matured retail product. At best what I have found FreeNAS to be used for is simply a temp or dump location for non-critical files. Although when it is matured some I see no reason why this can not be used on an older server with hardware RAID. Point being...this is NOT a home product for the casual user. Also, while FreeNAS has quite a few nice features for me..it is not comparable to WHS for the home market.

Mind you the aspect that does set this apart is the centralized backup. For home use this is an ideal solution as it implies simplicity for a task that is generally thought of as difficult

Judging by the responses so far I see that over and over techies just have no conception of what technology is for non technical users. While I personally would not need or use this, I do see this as a very nice product for home users. While this may not fit the bill for many here, simply because it is either from Microsoft, or because it is not Linux (meaning it can't be toyed with) people just need to get it into their heads that the majority of people do NOT care, want, or need something complex or complicated.

I see the difference between technical and nontechnical people as being all about curiosity. People like my mom want to memorize "the way" to do whatever high level task they want to do, and operating systems just don't work like that. Windows seems easy to the curious "technical" users because we right-click on everything and find out what it does, and that's where most of the functionality in Windows is. People who do that will be able to get WHS running and a client talking to it without much trouble, but the habitual, task-based "grandma" people won't touch it.

What I'm getting at is that I don't think there's anyone out there capable of utilizing Home Server but not capable of learning Linux. Linux will take longer for a chronic desktop user, of course, but they both involve strange, new concepts, and whether or not people will approach such things is more personality than training or intelligence.

I think this Home Server concept is all about the geeks and technical people who don't want to spend a lot of time figuring out how to get an arguably more technically capable system to do the same things. People who can't handle Linux aren't going to touch this, either.

This is for the HOME market, not the geek market.

People in the home market, whatever that may be, consider stuff like Windows Server geek toys.

Judging by the responses so far I see that over and over techies just have no conception of what technology is for non technical users.

Well, if you think that Windows Server can be stuck in someone's home because it is for non-techies, you and Microsoft are in for a shock.

Home server is designed to be very easy to use. Samba/NFS with any linux or *BSD is not that easy to configure or use for a newbie, and having to learn a whole new interface (gnome or KDE) is rather daunting, and for most normal users, the CLI is out of the question. I use Debian and FreeBSD at home, but I could see a definite market for this product.

FreeNAS is a good product, but I don't see anything about automated backups, the user would have to set that up manually, and that could be quite the chore for Joe sixpack.

A hardware NAS is more expensive than that old p4 sitting in the closet, just waiting to be resurrected. Let people choose the best tool for them, don't try to dictate what's best for everyone.

Unless all or most of the logic is implemented in silicon, it's not a "hardware" NAS anymore than the old p4 is. Putting the software on compact flash doesn't an ASIC make.

In any modern desktop Linux distro, you get a nice Control Center with wizards for setting up servers.

For example, with a few clicks, I set up folder sharing on my Mandriva Spring. Easy-peasy.

This is no 1999 anymore.

All this "Samba/NFS is very complicated bla bla bla" is just not true for a home environment.

If you want to set up an advanced file sharing system on a domain server for a business environment, Samba/NFS could be as complicated as you want.

But not on a home environment: 4 clicks and you are done.

Peace.