Will Amahi do for me what WHS wont?

[MrXwhs]

Ive been using WHSv1 for a few years now, and more recently the 2011rc... whiilst Ive liked what they do, I find them very limiting and restrictive. If I tell you a bit more of what ny needs are, hopefully you can offer me some advice before I wipe my WHS and take the plunge!

In addition to what WHS can offer (backup, web access, media streaming, file storage etc), perhaps my main need is for myself and my wife to be able to run the admin side of our small part-time home business (we both have normal day jobs). This means being able to have access to office productivity apps, the equivalent of word, excel, more importantly outlook & a shared calender, so when we are out and about, if either of us need to we can access the server and manage the business. In a sense providing terminal services, or remote acess functioanlity on a per user basis. WHS can offer such functioanlities thorugh the dashboard (with add-ins), but this is only available via admin user, so each user cant have their own access to run apps etc.

For example, we are both out, and get a call from a customer.. we can jump on the web, edit a couple of documents and email them off, whilst also updating the shared calender etc... I know you can achieve such things with hotmail/gmail etc, but as Im a bit of a geek, and have a home server.. why not use it! In additon, if we could then get the calendar to 2 way sync with our phones (iphone/android), like we currenly have with outlook and gmail sync.. that would be fantastic!

I simply want more from my home server than whs can offer, without the cost or complexity of windows server technologies.. Im obviously prepared to adapt, and open to ditchin M$ altogether for a better all round solution...
Is this achievable with Amahi??

[MrXwhs]

Wow.. not the most stimulating or thought provoking pf posts, but no one got any answers?

[dinomic]

Wow.. not the most stimulating or thought provoking pf posts, but no one got any answers?

It's probably because you're asking about specific Microsoft functionality/software, but on a Linux machine?

Have you considered using something like MS BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite), soon to become Microsoft 365? This is Microsoft moving heavily into the Cloud space - it's their no1 priority at the moment, hence why they've taken their eye off the ball in other areas. But for what you need, it's probably the best solution...

[doogie]

As a recent convert from WHSV1 to Amahi (due to #vailfail - I have 8.5TB of drives I've migrated from DriveExtender to Greyhole!), I know that you can setup VNC no problem, run seperate desktops per user and connect into them with a VNC client, which doesn't need installation (each user's desktop will be on a seperate port) - I believe there is also a WebVNC client, but I haven't experimented with that.

With this, you can have your own linux desktop and can run for example OOo or LibreOffice. I guess if you *had* to run MS Office you could fire Wine on there and run it inside that, but I don't know anything about this.

From a calendar point of view, I use an iPhone and just have my domain mail and calendar managed in Google apps - the iPhone syncs seamlessly with it, and I can use the web browser interface to add things in if I want, or I use Outlook with Google calendar sync on my work PC, but running Firefox in your VNC session would achieve the same for you - I know there are other dedicated mail & calendar apps like Evolution, which I imagine has a sync to Google apps, but it's just an extra couple of layers of complexity - it's up to you whether you feel it's worth the effort.

[zookie]

MrXwhs,

Your needs are more business focused and Amahi is not. I love my Amahi server but I would suggest either using Google Apps (or similar) or setting up a windows terminal server (for which there are the typical, and expensive, Microsoft licensing costs). A full blown terminal server with your WHS or Amahi server will do exactly what you need, but not free.

Could also setup another Linux machine, Fedora, Ubunut, whatever, and remote into it where you could have OpenOffice, etc available in KDE/Gnome.

It really depends on what "client" computer operating system you have when you and your wife are out of the office. If they are usually Windows computers, the terminal server client is built-in to every Windows computer since Windows XP. VNC or other is something you would have to download on that computer.

If it is your laptop that you have with you remotely and you have internet access, then you could just take advantage of the OpenVPN system built-in to Amahi. Just need to install a client on your laptop. http://openvpn.net/index.php?option=com_content&id=357

Good luck!