HP Out of the Home Server Market
Wow, this has really not been a good month for Windows Home Server followers all around. First the announcement that Drive Extender was kaput, and now word that the largest OEM of Home Server devices, HP, has discontinued their entire line and will no longer be producing. Yikes.
This also means that there will not be any more software updates to the existing MediaSmart Server range.
And HP have no plans at all to support Windows Home Server Code Name Vail, so if you have a MediaSemart Server and you were waiting for HP to provide assistance in updating to Vail when it is released, you are on your own.
Until I hear differently, I’m
Until I hear differently, I’m going to theorize that this is due to the drive extender tech being abandoned and HP feeling that it’s not worth their effort. So much for MS’ original statement that other vendors/solutions would be able to fill the gap!
Assuming it is not related (a
Assuming it is not related (a big assumption and probably wrong), this is a bigger hit to WHS than the loss of Drive Extender is. The loss of Drive Extender was a big hit to the enthusiast but I don’t believe the typical consumer will have played with Vail beta or know what Drive Extender is. Not the end of the world.
With HP leaving the market unless another large OEM steps up to the plate the typical consumer won’t be able to go to Best Buy and buy a WHS system—that’s huge.
To put it in a nutshell…
To put it in a nutshell… WHS, as you have known it, is DEAD. RIP WHS. Nice going M$.
Maybe this was actually
Maybe this was actually Microsoft’s plan? Release the product for geeks and a niche market as a proof of concept, then, for version 2, change the product to do what businesses need, which is their true cash cow, and let the niche product die.
Seems doubtful. It wouldn’t
Seems doubtful. It wouldn’t make sense that they tried to develop DE in the first place and then implemented in Vail, Aurora and Breckenridge only to rip it back out. I think this was purely a business decision where they looked at the resources it would take to attempt to fix DE along with the potential delay in shipping the three products vs. the revenue they thought they would get by having the feature.