No New Home Server SKU Please

The Windows Home Server Team is doing product planning for the next version of Home Server and they other day they asked what we would think of having two sku's a regular one and an advanced one.

The current SKU allows 10 computers and 10 users which is more than most people will ever need, at least initially. So here are my thoughts.

First, do not do it as a separate SKU as there isn't an easy way to transition back and forth and most people won't know they need the "Advanced" SKU which will leave sales people to up sell them to a more expensive product for no reason. I agree with Ed here in that aspect. He also worries about splitting functionality if that were to happen to help the up sell.

I also agree with Ed in that they should make a way to add on license capabilities, but I would add that they should separate the ability to add computers from the ability to add users.  They should make the Computer add-on's available in 5 computer increments, but I would like to see them make a single user add-on that would do an unlimited number of users or something really high like 50 or 100.

Here is the thinking, today if you want to lock down things you need a user account on the machine to secure it, for many things.  I would like the ability to make individual account for my extended family without having to micro mange this at the 10 user limit or risk giving a singular ID and password, which to me is a security risk. I think the 5-10 increment only works for computers and that users should have a much higher scale so as to not piss people off.

What are your thoughts?

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