If you use an iMac on a network with WHS, do you get the same benefits as a Windows pc?

There are several things you lose. WHS will not backup any Mac. You cannot use remote desktop to the mac. You cannot install the connector software natively.

It will however stream iTunes and you can access the network shares so you could use it as your iTunes library location. Because of the way iPhoto was redesigned with Leopard, you cannot use the WHS as the location of your photos library, but you can export them to the photos share.

To use the WHS as storage for your iPhoto's look for a program called "iPhoto Library Manager. I think it is about $20 and works well for me...

I wonder what happens when you virtualize Windows on the iMac by using VMWare Workstation 6 or Parallels?

Then it will backup the windows OS inside vmware. It will not backup any of the mac files. Even if you use bootcamp, it sets the windows part in it's own partition. Now, if you had an external drive attached to it, it may back that up.

Personally, I have all of my files on an external drive that has two 500GB drives mirrored. If something happens, then I'll still have my data on the mac. I also copy my iTunes library to the MSS so there is a third copy.

Best bet is to use Time Machine (assuming you have OS 10.5). Check out the information in the linked post below. You can setup TM to use a NAS but I have not tried it yet.

External Drive will probably NOT work due to the different file system. Windows "sees" the Drive (or partition) but can not mount it.

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=903&highlight=#903

I use TimeMachine for my backups. To backup my iTunes folder to the MSS, I mapped the drive from a windows PC and run a SyncToy script.