We Got Served

Over the past few weeks, hundreds of We Got Served readers have been voting for their favourite Windows Home Server hardware, software and community add-ins. On Christmas Day, voting closed and we’ve been counting the votes ever since. Today, on the first day of the New Year, we announce the results of the inaugural We Got Served Reader Awards for 2007!

Best Windows Home Server Hardware 2007

With a slew of new home server systems made available this year from OEMs large and small, this was always going to be an interesting battle. With HP’s MediaSmart Server getting all the headlines, smaller businesses such as Tranquil PC, Norco and Chenbro quietly released new powerful and energy-efficient home servers that sought to steal the headlines throughout the second half of the year. But which would be your favourite? In reverse order, then:

3rd Place: Tranquil PC T2-WHS-A2/A3 Home Server

Tranquil PC’s second Windows Home Server Chassis of 2007 comes in two flavours (the A2 and A3 spec) and was recently reviewed here at We Got Served. A great looking system, the T2 offered good storage expansion opportunities along with a quick processor and Tranquil’s trademark silent running and energy-efficiencies. That for us made it a better system than Tranquil’s debut, the T7-HSA, but you had a different opinion.

Lars from www.home-server-blog.de voted for the T2 – “Come on, there is no better available!”Frederic Bottin agreed, pointing out a suite of the T2’s features,“Green PC + fanless (nearly silent), 64Bits processor, Gigabits (in option), best price.”Robert Oliveira liked the look of the HP MediaSmart Server, but went for the T2 – “The HP MediaSmart was the first one I saw and I thought it was very cool looking and had tremendous functionality; I must admit however that I find the Tranquil series (most notably the T2-WHS-A3) to be a very attractive unit.”

So lots of support for Tranquil PC’s T2, but two systems came out ahead in the race and kudos to Tranquil PC for  getting two systems in your Top 3 of the year….

Highly Commended: Tranquil PC T7-HSA Harmony Home Server

The world’s first available Windows Home Server system made it to second place in the year-end awards. We received the T7 back in September and were amazed at how small and compact the system was in the metal. Despite it’s small size and low power specification, it ran Windows Home Server effortlessly and we were pleased to see a clean build installed on the hardware by Tranquil PC. We pointed out a lack of internal storage expansion as one watch-out but for a fanless system, we were surprised to see how cool it ran.

Trent Kaiser from Canada summed up the beauty of the T7 with his vote: “Quiet, small, easy to set up” – few could disagree.

WGS Readers Award 2007 for Best Windows Home Server Hardware: HP MediaSmart Server EX470/EX475

The HP MediaSmart Server was always going to be difficult to beat in this category – debuting on stage with Bill Gates in Las Vegas in January, the HP MediaSmart Server arrived late and in smallish quantities, but sold out quickly. It’s a great piece of indistrial design, offering great aesthetics, wonderful hot swappable storage expansion and fantastic manuals and installation instructions. We reviewed the system last month and found it to be the perfect system to showcase Windows Home Server.

Dan Huber gave his vote to HP, “They bundle the right hardware with aesthetics to please and easy documentation for those new to Windows Home Server”. Don Carlson agreed, “I feel that HP put this on the drawing board, saw the potential and developed it on time. There are plenty of extras and things that you can do with it and it is a perfect home companion for storing all of your documents across the board.”Meanwhile, Colin Walker praised HP’s close collaboration with Microsoft on the system, “Well, it just has to be the HP MediaSmart Server EX475. What a good looking AND functional bit of kit. I just think you can’t argue with the results of such a close collaboration.”

So, it won the headlines, plaudits and the hearts of many WGS readers – congratulations to HP for winning the Readers Award 2007 for Best Windows Home Server Hardware.

Best Windows Home Server Software 2007

This award is for the best commercial (i.e. paid for) software developed specifically for Windows Home Server this year. We’ve seen a number of leading software developers release software in the second half of the year, including online backup utilities, disk optimisation software and anti-virus protection. Voting was brisk in this category and it was a very close run competition. Let’s check out your Top 3 of the Year.

3rd Place: Sage TV for Windows Home Server

 Lots of you are seeking media serving capabilities for Windows Home Server, and Sage TV for Windows Home Server is your application of choice to fulfill them. The software allows you to serve TV, Video, Music and Photos to any PC over your broadband connection directly from Windows Home Server.

Here in Europe, Lars gave his vote to Sage TV, with one small caveat ,”Sage TV best fits my needs, even if the EPG does not work well here in Germany”.  Michael Charlton called it “Without doubt the most useful of the paid-for applications available.” Ian Grant has played with Sage TV a lot, “The potential for having your WHS as a PVR device is a killer feature for me.”

Highly Commended: Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer

With Windows Home Server utilising multiple hard disks to back up your home computers each night, keeping your disks defragmented is important to ensure your home server runs effectively. Diskeeper released Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer at the end of the year which plugs into the WHS Console and runs in the background continually optimising your hard disks, to reduce file fragmentation.

Many if you have been delighted with its performance, like Don Carlson, “By far my vote will be for “Diskeeper 2008 Home Server”. It tied into my network great and has been working perfectly.”

WGS Readers Award 2007 for Best Windows Home Server Software: Avast! AntiVirus WHS Edition

Congratulations to ALWIL software, whose Avast! AntiVirus WHS Edition has only been very recently released after being in beta for the last few months. Avast is the first (and currently only) anti-virus software built specifically for Windows Home Server, and enables you to manage the protection not only of your home server from within the WHS Console, but also of all of your home computers running Avast’s Professional edition of their software.

Clearly, WHS users are keen to protect their home servers from malware, and as Dan Huber commented, Avast have made protection simple to achieve, “I live by their free consumer desktop software and am glad to see early adoption on their part to support WHS and integrate the two products to allow remote management – an awesome idea!”

So, it arrived late to the party and stole all the champagne – ALWIL takes the WGS Readers Award 2007 for Best Windows Home Server Softwarewith Avast! AntiVirus WHS Edition.

Best Windows Home Server Community Add-In 2007

And so, we come to our final award – and some would say, we’ve left the biggest fight until last. With well over 30 free Windows Home Server add-ins developed by members of the community, competition for your votes was fair, but fierce. Certainly we’ve been impressed this year with the sheer volume and indeed variety of add-ins that have been released this year – in many ways it’s the lifeblood of the community and we’re looking forward to seeing many more developed and released in 2008, as well as continued development of those published this year. Time to reveal the winners…

3rd Place: Marcel Nouwens for uTorrent

Whilst Windows Home Server is a fabulous system for distributing photos, music and videos around your home, many of you are using Marcel Nouwens’ uTorrent add-in to, erm, “acquire” that content in the first place. The uTorrent add-in allows you view and manage all bittorrent downloads within the Windows Home Server Console, leaving your home computers freed up to, I don’t know, search for more torrents or something .

As user MStiger comments on the Windows Home Server forums, “This is pure own”. Enough said.

Highly Commended: ASoft for AutoExit 2008 for Windows Home Server

AutoExit 2008 was a very popular choice in this category, providing Windows Home Server users with a suite of features including remote Wake on LAN functionality, shut down and reboot of home computers on the network as well as enabling the sending of messages to home computers. Given this year’s Code2Fame competition only included US entries, add-ins like AutoExit did not get a look in, but may have given Whiist a run for its money, as it certainly generated a lot of votes from the community.

Dan Huber finds it makes life easier, “I like AutoExit 2008’s capabilities the most which would prove the handiest for the sake of forcing changes remotely such as a reboot after a critical update, waking a computer to do a backup if it’s been powered off for some time and hasn’t been available to do a backup and you’re not there to power it on.”

WGS Readers Award 2007 for Best Windows Home Server Community Add-In: Andrew Grant for Whiist

Well, Andrew picked up a nice cheque for winning Microsoft’s Code2Fame competition earlier in the year and taken the WGS Readers Award for Best Community Add-In too! Whiist allows you to create and manage web content on your Windows Home Server, giving you the potential to add websites, photo albums to your remote website, add links to favourite websites and most recently, customise the WHS homepage itself.

Whiist delivers well on an unmet need in WHS v1, and deserves its plaudits. WGS reader Michael Charlton commented, “I’ve got to go with the judges on this one, it’s been just too useful for me and can’t be ignored when considering a winner for this category.”Greig Holder was of the same opinion, “Although there is an impressive and growing list in this category, WHIIST has been the most useful to me so far.”

Whilst Andrew was gracious enough not to vote for his own add-in, he clearly sees great future for Windows Home Server, “Overall I think this year we’ve seen the birth of what will soon become one of Microsoft’s cornerstone products. WHS is such a great concept and has been executed almost flawlessly so I’m sure it has a bright future. It’s very exciting to have been involved from day one ”

Congratulations to Andrew Grant for Whiist, winning the WGS Readers Award 2007 for Best Community Add-In.

So there you have it, our first ever WGS Readers Awards won by HP for the HP MediaSmart Server, ALWIL for Avast! AntiVirus WHS Edition and Andrew Grant for Whiist. Congratulations to all of our winners and nominees and commiserations to those who didn’t win – but for the victors, remember, there are hardware manufacturers, software developers and add-in programmers out there right now working hard to steal next year’s crown from you. Make sure you’re ready to take them on in 2008!

Thanks too to everyone who took time out to vote on their favourites – I’ll be drawing the three winners of our awards giveaway soon, so stay tuned to see if you got lucky.

With that, 2007 officially draws to a close and what a fun-filled, action-packed, rip-roaring year it’s been. From the little I know, 2008 will promise to be even better, starting with CES 2008 in Las Vegas next week. Thanks to everyone who has checked out the blog this year, whether you’re a regular reader, commenter or in some other way have read/spoken/typed the words “We” “Got” and “Served” this year. I’ve had a blast and am really looking forward to continuing our adventures together in 2008.

Happy New Year!

Terry