HP has said that it is taking pre-orders on Monday for its MediaSmart server. This is the first manufacturer to offer the new Windows Home Server operating system.

MediaSmart will be shiped later this month. It is priced at US$599 with 500GB of storage, or $749 with a terabyte of disk space.

A few months back I wrote 3 articles (Part1, Part2, Part3) about the beta version of this operating system.

I have not had a chance to write about it since then, but it is even better than before, and Microsoft has done a great deed by what they left out – more than what they put into it.

It does exactly what it is supposed to do…without much more….making it a very robust server operating system for your home.

One of the coolest features is the ability to add storage space with very little interaction. Add a new drive, and within a few moments it is added to your core space you use to store your movies, data, music, and photos.

HP had delayed the release of this product earlier in the year. Word is that they were having issues with automatic router configuration and accessing the machine remotely.

Fujitsu and a few other vendors say they will be releasing their own Windows Home server sometime next year.