MS Server OS's : Don't get it

["noughtomate" <balraj_jassal@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

- Some newbie questions -

I have a NAS box which I use as a Backup device and a Media Server
for distrbuting Videos and Audio around the house. This NAS is
Debian Linux based, of which I have very little experience but I
have managed to install Slimserver on to it to allow playback on
Music on my Squeezebox.

I now want to upgrade my NAS to something Microsoft based, the
reason being that I have an increasing need to install server side
applications and all applications that I've been researching are
Microsoft based.

Ideally I would like this new Server to support :
- RAID Mirrored Backups
- Media Server using FTP, Samba, uPnP. NFS would be a nice to have
- Family web portal
- Slimserver
- Downloads server
-Caller ID Server application (TapiRex)
- X10, Z-Wave and IR Home Automation Server (mControl)
- MyMovies server application
- USB, eSATA and Firewire connectivity

What I'm struggling with is what the Microsoft suite of Server OS's
can do for me. Various folks on this forum are using Windows Server
2000, 2003 or Home Server but I don't understand how these are
different from XP. I've not seen these OS's running so I don't know
how they are used.

The above applications I know will work with XP, but does that imply
they will work for work for these Server OS's ?

Okay... So XP contains alot of Bloatware and is limited to 10 active
connections concurrently but are these Server OS's any better ?

Also, are the Server OS's headless (i.e. No monitor required) ?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks







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