After Mary Jo Foley noted that copies of a new version of Windows Home Server, code named “Vail” were floating out there on the interwebs, there was quite a little flurry of activity as enthusiasts jumped at the chance to take a look at the next new thing.  One of the first was Robert McLaws, who was able to get “Vail” up and running and has been posting on his experience.

One detail caught his eye, and ours too: this screenshot shows a very Windows Live Wave 4 look to the header within WHS Vail:

In chatting with Robert, he hasn’t found any obvious Windows Live links into or out of Vail, but the use of the Windows Live header has to be more than just a coincidence, no?  Will we see some form of Windows Live integration with WHS?  (SkyDrive integration, maybe? just a guess, but…). As Robert says, “this is an *early* build”, with lots of placeholders, still.

You can check out Robert’s posts on WHS “Vail” on his Windows Now blog, and don’t miss his screenshot gallery, some interesting stuff about mobile in there, too:

We’re big WHS fans here, it’s saved our bacon numerous times, so we can’t wait to see where this all leads!