Last week I reported here, that Microsoft had decided in their infinite wisdom to remove the Drive Extender technology they were building from SBS 2011 Essentials and Windows Home Server “Vail” both due for release in 2011. Following this announcement there was a huge amount of outcry from the community but this outcry was actually not so much focused on the removal of the technology from the SBS 2011 Essentials product, but on it’s removal from the new Vail Home Server product. To me this was a killer feature of Vail / Home Server. Just look at the bug that was lodged in Connect that’s over 4000 individual REAL PEOPLE that believe this was a bad idea to remove it from Vail.
Terry Walsh – Home Server MVP from “We Got Served” decided to take matters into his own hands. He write to the big man himself (no – not Santa Claus)… Steve Ballmer to let him know of the massive outcry from the community and ask for something to be done. Well – Steve B himself responded… in his typical shorthand fashion of “I’ll look into it…” Now – for Terry this is the first time that he’s written to Steve B. Personally – I wrote to Steve B earlier this year when Microsoft decided to kill the Essential Business Server (EBS) product line. I also got a response from Steve indicating that he’d look into it. As you will know EBS is still dead. I did however get contact from some very high level people in the Microsoft Executive team so that they could understand my concerns. However I believe that the situation here is a little different. I believe and hope that Terry’s plea and the 4000+ others that have voted on the Connect bug actually will make a difference. I believe that Microsoft will listen to the community feedback and seriously hope that they will consider making the Drive Extender technology available in the Vail / Home Server product only. As an MVP, I HAVE TO believe that Microsoft listen to our feedback and that Drive Extender (unlike EBS) will rise from the dead. Time will tell. Steve Ballmer – it’s up to you. Terry Walsh… good on ya mate for giving it a crack and letting the big man know. If you disappear and we see black helicopters around, we’ll know where to look for you 
Unfortunately, I’m not as optimistic as you Wayne. With HP’s announcement they’re pulling the plug on their MediaSmart Server line what I see is a similar scenario to Response Point. I also saw today that Microsoft Press has cancelled “Windows Home Server Vail Inside and Out”. Now that may be because there was a lot of information in it on DE, but it just seems like there are an awful lot of coincidences coming together all at once.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I will do my best to keep my existing MediaSmart Server with PowerPack 3 running as long as I can.
Wow Bill – had not heard about the MediaSmart servers being cancelled… will see what I can find out from my HP contacts.
Wayne,
Here’s a post about the HP Stuff with links.
http://www.wegotserved.com/2010/12/01/hp-pulls-windows-home-server-market-leaves-vail-cold/
Certainly looks like HP NOT HAPPY JANE.
Thanks
Robert
Wayne, yeah I was caught off guard by it when I saw the traffic on it on Twitter last night. Microsoft jumped right in with a, “This has nothing to do with our announcement” blog post. http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/windowshomeserver/archive/2010/11/30/hp-mediasmart-server-to-retire.aspx. In the words of Han Solo in the trash compactor scene, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”.
Can I just say what a relief to find somebody
that truly knows what they’re talking about on the net.
You certainly realize how to bring a problem to light
and make it important. More people have to check this out and understand this side of your story.
It’s surprising you are not more popular given that you
most certainly have the gift.