Which OS for a home server?

Col_M

Col_M

Col_M

Soldato
Joined
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Ok, I'm looking at putting a very low power headless home server together based on an Atom mITX board and a couple 1TB drives.

The main thing it's going to be used for are,
Storage of music, movies (including 1080p) and photos so they can be accessed and viewed on networked machines and a network media player.
Backing up networked machines
Print server
Downloading

Pretty basic things but I'm wondering what OS is best to go for?

If I'm honest I'm not keen on going the Linux route as I have no experience of it and learning it just to make a home server doesn't seem worth it.

WHS seems good but from what I've read you're limited in the programs you can run on it and general flexability.

On the other hand I'm wondering if Server 2003/8 would be overkill as I'm not going to be creating a domain or using it as a web, SQL or mail server etc.

Could I even get away with using XP and just sharing the resources and administering it using VNC or Remote desktop?

There's probably incorrect assumptions in the above but that's why I'm calling on OcUK's knowledge to put me on the right path.
 
I would agree that Server 2003/2008 would be overkill.

I've not used Homer Server yet so can't comment, but I have used XP as a basic server to share files and stream media before.
 
I use WHS and run twonkymedia to serve my files. Backs up my PC, and even has utorrent on it for when I need that game download etc. Used rarely.

If it runs on server 2003 then it runs on WHS.
 
Thanks guys, to be honest WHS was what I was leaning towards and seems to do everything I need.

I guess I can just get the free trial and see how it works for me, I've got nothing to lose.
 
Col_M said:
Thanks guys, to be honest WHS was what I was leaning towards and seems to do everything I need.

I guess I can just get the free trial and see how it works for me, I've got nothing to lose.
Click to expand...

Make sure you install on your largest drive . . . . . It partitions 20gb for system, and the other part becomes the partition where it moves all its files to before allocating them space on another drive, (Assuming you have more than one . . . ).
 
PhillyDee said:
Make sure you install on your largest drive . . . . . It partitions 20gb for system, and the other part becomes the partition where it moves all its files to before allocating them space on another drive, (Assuming you have more than one . . . ).
Click to expand...
Cool thanks, I'd heard about the "landing zone" in WHS before, also makes sense for it to be the quietest and end most energy efficient drive too :)
 
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