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General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft Search Server 2010 Express: a (free) hidden gem?
« on: May 01, 2011, 03:17 AM »
I didn't know about the free edition of Omnifind, Shades
Unfortunately, as you mentioned, it has been discontinued:
Besides, its software requirements list give away its age:
Definitely not cutting edge :)
Anyway, if you're currently using it and experience no issues with it, I would continue using it too. But I certainly wouldn't choose it for a new installation.
Apparently Omnifind Yahoo Edition was a victim of the Microsoft-Yahoo search agreement a couple of years back. It looks like IBM didn't quite like the idea of distributing a product which would have to include Microsoft's search engine (as a result of Yahoo dropping theirs): Yahoo deal puts IBM, Microsoft in enterprise search pickle
The 10 million items figure is for the "Complete" installation, which assumes an independent SQL Server installation. The recommended limit for the "Stand alone" installation is about 300,000 items. Keep in mind that these are not hard limits, but recommended ones based on the performance of the database engine. So, in short, it's:
No, I couldn't find benchmarks, but I did find a couple of pages with relevant info:
Unfortunately, as you mentioned, it has been discontinued:
- Effective September 22, 2010, this product is withdrawn from marketing.
- Effective June 30, 2011, this product will be withdrawn from support.
Besides, its software requirements list give away its age:
Supported operating systems
32-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 4, Update 3
32-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise 10
32-bit Windows XP SP2
32-bit Windows 2003 Server SP1
Supported browsers
The administration console and the search page are browser-based. The following browsers are supported:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
Mozilla Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 (required for Linux installations)
Cookies must be enabled to use the administration console and the search page.
Definitely not cutting edge :)
Anyway, if you're currently using it and experience no issues with it, I would continue using it too. But I certainly wouldn't choose it for a new installation.
Apparently Omnifind Yahoo Edition was a victim of the Microsoft-Yahoo search agreement a couple of years back. It looks like IBM didn't quite like the idea of distributing a product which would have to include Microsoft's search engine (as a result of Yahoo dropping theirs): Yahoo deal puts IBM, Microsoft in enterprise search pickle
Looks indeed interesting, especially for the amount of items that can be stored in the search database.-Shades (April 30, 2011, 11:26 PM)
The 10 million items figure is for the "Complete" installation, which assumes an independent SQL Server installation. The recommended limit for the "Stand alone" installation is about 300,000 items. Keep in mind that these are not hard limits, but recommended ones based on the performance of the database engine. So, in short, it's:
- Complete installation of SS 2010 Express -> SQL Server -> up to 10 million items (aprox.)
- Stand-alone installation of SS 2010 Express -> SQL Server Express -> up to 300,000 items (aprox.)
Do you know of any site/blog that did a benchmark test with several of the freely available LAN search engines?-Shades (April 30, 2011, 11:26 PM)
No, I couldn't find benchmarks, but I did find a couple of pages with relevant info:
- An answer at Stack Overflow with a comparison of a lot of enterprise search solutions in terms of features, performance, etc.: What are some Search Servers out there? - Stack Overflow
quite simply if you don't want to shell out money Solr/Lucene or Fast (now MSSE) is really about the best you can do
- A Microsoft's article evaluating the performance of SS 2010 Express: Estimate performance and capacity requirements for Microsoft Search Server 2010 Express. It's a 28-page PDF so it's quite thorough, even if it also comes from Microsoft itself.