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Drive Extender replacement due out in 2012. It's called Storage Spaces.

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40hz:
Not too up on WSS either since that's mainly an OEM technology for appliances and turnkey servers.

I can see deduplication for a backup, a message store, or anything similar since you'll be creating a database of files and calculating hashes anyway. The Cumulus media and digitsl asset storage servers used to (still do?) work like that. (Been a long time since I've seen one of those.)

I also noticed in the blog entry there was no mention of that. Not surprised. It would kinda eliminate some of the market for WSS Essentials if it included deduplication features.
 :)

Stoic Joker:
Not too up on WSS either since that's mainly an OEM technology for appliances and turnkey servers.
-40hz (January 11, 2012, 08:37 AM)
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Bummer, I was hoping you were ahead of me on that one. I pulled the ISO's off the MSDN awhile back, but haven't had time to try to virtualize one to play with. I'd like to try playing with Windows Thin PC too (also on the MSDN).

40hz:
Bummer, I was hoping you were ahead of me on that one.
-Stoic Joker (January 11, 2012, 11:41 AM)
--- End quote ---

Nope. Got my hands full enough I haven't gotten a chance to play with it. But since it's primarily Microsoft's take on an AD aware and enabled version of a NAS it shouldn't be that earthshaking a product - although it probably has some nice bells & whistles for domain admins.

Kier Thomas over at PCWorld dissed it a while back in a short op-ed piece:

Microsoft faces an uphill struggle. Why would a vendor implement WSS2008R2 when it brings with it a 25-user limitation and licensing fees that will push up the price of their hardware? This is especially relevant for smaller businesses, at which WSS2008R2-based products are to be aimed, as they're likely to have meager IT budgets compared to larger organizations.

From an original equipment manufacturer point of view, Linux might have higher initial setup costs--those pretty GUIs need a fleet of coders to create them--but this needs to be done only once for an entire product range. Additionally, some companies have struggled with the nature of Linux licensing, forgetting that they can't simply take Linux and add-in their own cool bits, keeping everything secret. Any changes to Linux that are then redistributed much be shared as source code.

The only reason I can see for WSS2008R2 ending-up in NAS devices might be to appeal to businesses so tightly in the grip of Microsoft that they can't possibly consider products by anybody else. The Microsoft brand still has some cachet in such circles, and using WSS2008R2 in a product will no doubt allow vendors to add "Designed for Windows 7" stickers to the box.
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I don't always agree with Kier. But this time I think he pretty much nails it. WSS is something Microsoft brought to the table just to say "See! We have that too!"

... and to possibly make OEMs get around that common problem companies have with GPLed software (which I bolded in the above quote) when they want to benefit from FOSS - but not be required to share their code back as part of the deal.

..and to possibly make life a little easier for the CIO of a small firm that is required to make compliance assurances in a regulated industry like law or mortgage lending. I doubt a State examiner would have much to say about your software codebase if he/she saw Microsoft's name all over everything. Not that Microsoft's stuff is any more secure than anybody else's code if the number of patches and updates on Microsoft's website are anything to go by. But even if there were concerns, it's easy to point back to exactly who authored it. And that counts for 'major props' with regulators.

I personally think the main point of WSS was to provide something a little less flexible and more "professional sounding" than Windows Home Server for small business clients and SMB consultants. Or possibly provide an "out" for those who bought Small Business Server, ran out of storage space - and are now trying to figure out how to increase it without running the risk of messing with SBS and destroying their entire world.



Plus, it's always expedient to try to take a little something away from Linux/BSD providers. Especially before people start thinking and asking pointed questions about stuff like...oh...y'know... licenses and prices...

Cuz Microsoft knows once you let Tux or Beastie in the door - there's just no telling what might happen...

But I'm sure they can can guess. ;D

   

 :Thmbsup:

P.S. re: ThinPC - Yes! Definitely something I'll have to make the time for soon. That is a piece of tech I'm going to need to know a whole lot more about than I do right now.

I don't need a 40 hour week. I need a 40 hour day. :-\

mahesh2k:
You know what you got one convert this year.  :Thmbsup: I am literally trying to switch 100 percent to linux this year. I don't want to waste time with windows anymore. I have old computers which can't run modern windows but they can run slitaz or archlinux without much issues, virtualbox can solve some win dependent apps requirement. I guess anything nooh from apple and windows is starting to look useless to me. I played with w8 demo, apple and it's just not impressing me against linux.

40hz:
You know what you got one convert this year.  :Thmbsup: I am literally trying to switch 100 percent to linux this year. I don't want to waste time with windows anymore. I have old computers which can't run modern windows but they can run slitaz or archlinux without much issues, virtualbox can solve some win dependent apps requirement. I guess anything nooh from apple and windows is starting to look useless to me. I played with w8 demo, apple and it's just not impressing me against linux.
-mahesh2k (January 11, 2012, 02:34 PM)
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I'll agree with you on that. If I were doing purely personal computing, or running a non-computer business, I'd be 100% on NIX by now.

A few things currently keep me from doing so:

1. My clients use Windows. So, in the spirit of "drinking what you serve," I also have to be a Windows user, both to stay on top of it, and have direct hands-on. Otherwise I wouldn't bother. ALL my personal stuff gets done on Linux. And all my personal servers are either BSD or Linux.

2. I don't pay the full tariff. I'm in the MS partner program. So I get access to something called an Action Pack. Which is a super inexpensive way to get access to most of what Redmond offers at an incredibly good annual license fee. If I had to actually buy this stuff at market price I'd be out of business since it would be too expensive for me to stay up on these products. Especially since (to repeat myself because it's important) hands-on counts for everything when you do field support.

Note: If you really are "in the business" of supporting Windows (i.e. you're a registered business with a taxpayer ID number) you'd do well to qualify for the program. It doesn't take much other than passing an easy test and agreeing to some very reasonable terms to get in. If you're in the business - get in on this. It's one of the few true bargains out there.

3. I sometimes need to be compliant with someone's proprietary model for a given sort of project.

If you have a music project where every other musician is using Sonar, you'd best be using Sonar too if you're floating sequenced files back and forth. You could do export/imports. And they might even work and be glitch-free. (Don't hold your breath however.) But time is money. And technical headaches get in the way of creativity. So insisting on an arguably (or more like 'possibly') better FOSS solution is still counter-productive. And it just gets everybody pissed at you anyway. Same goes for movie editors, or scriptwriting software, or spreadsheets. If you're working with accountants, the government, or big business - you use Excel. Each venue has it's preferred software tools. You'll find industry inertia or momentum drive tool choices more often than not. Very often it's not a good idea to try and buck the flow. Sometimes it's not even possible.

There are even conventions (mostly inertia-based) in local markets that need to be observed for pragmatic reasons. Example: network diagrams in consulting proposals get done in Visio around where I work. Always Visio. Just Visio. Nothing but Visio. Ever. To do otherwise is to brand yourself as an amateur with the clueless. But those same clueless people are also the terrific people who write out your checks. So you use Visio. Period. (And when all's said and done, Visio is a very nice diagramming tool. That much I will give them. Even if the current publisher wasn't the company who originally wrote it.)


*

So in this less than perfect world, I still really can't completely walk away from Windows or Apple unless I find something else to do full-time -and for money.

Not yet anyway. :(



But I'm working on it... 8) ;)

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