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I had no idea that they were making this, but now I really wish that they had continued.
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oh wow, I would of had so much use for that. Why couldn't they just sell the project?
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Honestly, software RAIDing a whole bunch of old crappy hard drives of different types and speeds without knowing what you are doing can only mean trouble.
Its still extremely cheap and simple to create a file server. I don't understand why a home server needs super high performance, all it would do is share files and you don't need to know linux or raid to do that.
I'm glad this got discontinued, the more accessible these things are, the worse its gonna be in the workplace, I'm already sick and tired of mssql server, and all the crappy Windows guis, Linux's heavy focus on the terminal means that everything can be done so quickly and efficiently. Hell, even my window manager doesn't have a gui (its a tiling window manager), it just opens terminals and all commands are done via the keyboard. /Rant
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5930 Posts
The thing is Drive Extender wasn't RAID. That's why Drive Extender was so good for a basic user who didn't did any of the benefits of RAID. You can put in any sort of drive and it wouldn't matter. If your server kicks it, you're not SOL or forced to rebuild your RAID array because you can just plug it into your Windows machine since all drives are NTFS. It basically pools all the data into one massive storage pool like JBOD without any of the problems JBOD has in regards to stability (one drive fails, oh fuck I've lost my pool sort of thing).
Its literally the easiest and best way for a normal end user to back up their Windows PC as well as have some server functionality (media streaming, etc) while your at it.
Other data security options like RAID are great if you have the knowledge but its still a pain to use even if you do have the knowledge. zfs for example owns hard but holy shit man if you try and justify its use outside of a business environment. Microsoft basically pulled the rug from under the consumer yet again by forcing them to use corporate technology since Windows Home Server is regressing back to RAID, which is something open source solutions do quite well.
Sure people can use FreeNAS (I've used it, it is really good) or other open source Linux server solutions but at the end of the day these solutions are just not accessible for the majority of people. RAID isn't consumer technology and some Linux based systems are an absolute pain to operate if you are unfamiliar with it...people don't come home to be server janitors just so they can have some data security, media streaming, and centralized remote access.
Ease of use is something that should be improved constantly, its why we even have GUIs these days. Windows Home Server basically, for once, offered a well thought out server solution that was piss easy to use and was something your parents could operate if you spent a day teaching them the ropes - holy shit if you are unironically supporting the death of a easy to use solution and saying we should just go back to terminals.
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I only understand about 10% of what is being said in this thread, yet I feel knowledgeable to say something along the lines of "God Microsoft is so stupid, and i hate them so much!"
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This drive extender thing sounds cool. Although why would it be better than just multiple drives for we noobs?
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On November 25 2010 17:28 Womwomwom wrote:
Ease of use is something that should be improved constantly, its why we even have GUIs these days. Windows Home Server basically, for once, offered a well thought out server solution that was piss easy to use and was something your parents could operate if you spent a day teaching them the ropes - holy shit if you are unironically supporting the death of a easy to use solution and saying we should just go back to terminals.
Well I have to say, after being taught sysadmin/web development/database design etc on Windows all through GUIs I much prefer to do things via command prompt/terminal. Using SSH to remotely control overseas servers and fix problems is light years faster than remote desktop/vnc on all fronts.
At home and at work I much prefer running a small LAMP stack on a linux VM than starting up a ridiculously slow WS2008 image which is unfortunate when I need to because of some silly client requirement.
GUIs are great for things like word processing, email, web browsing etc but for everything using the terminal will let you complete tasks more quickly and in some cases be easier to learn as well.
I think Windows 7 is the best operating system because it has a great user interface but there are still a lot of cases where you can get the job done faster using the command prompt.
It did seem like Microsoft was working on some interesting technology but if they aren't going to make money off it then that's the end of it. Microsoft isn't really one to make something out of the good of their heart 
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5930 Posts
But really, for the average consumer, he doesn't care about SSL or anything offered by Red Hat Linux or similar operating systems. He just wants something to back up his previous files, stream media, and maybe do some torrenting while its at it.
I agree for some of the more complex and technical stuff, the terminal is far more useful when you doing some serious server monitoring. The disconnect between the consumer and the corporate head of basically every single tech company is the exact reason Apple is eroding basically every tech based company's market share because they're the only ones who are pushing out products that target specific markets and understand what they want.
Most people don't want that, most people don't even use a terminal or what acronyms like TCP/IP or what FTP are and this product was perfect for them since it was smart and easy enough to use that it basically took care of itself. That's why I'm so sad/angry/full of nerd rage to see it go because its a server my parents use and its simple/robust enough for them to operate.
It did seem like Microsoft was working on some interesting technology but if they aren't going to make money off it then that's the end of it. Microsoft isn't really one to make something out of the good of their heart
Who knows why they got rid of it (the home server market isn't really that big after all and corporate doesn't use drive extender), but I'm certain internal corporate politics or/and massive development problems are the issue.
For years they've peddled the line that "RAID is not consumer technology, drive extender is better for consumers" and built quite a dedicated market base out of thin air through their release of WSH v1.
Skip a few years and they're told us that WSH v2 won't be supporting drive extender, which is a major reason why WSH is so good for the typical end user who doesn't know anything. Through blog posts, they've basically said "RAID is for consumers, go get a third party RAID solution" and "Our users don't want it so we're getting rid of it". All of this suggests something seriously stupid/bad occured within the corporation or during the development of the technology.
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On November 25 2010 17:33 Comeh wrote:
I only understand about 10% of what is being said in this thread, yet I feel knowledgeable to say something along the lines of "God Microsoft is so stupid, and i hate them so much!"
I couldn't agree more to this.
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EPT
