Here at WGS, readers have been equally critical:
For some reason Vail no longer creates a personal folder inside of a “users” shared folder when you add a user. I can add a share but now it takes up another drive letter. If I do this for several family members now I have a case of drive letter clutter. I don’t want to see 10 network drives every time I open my computer on a client.
Vail offers nothing new over WHS1 PP3. Therefore I don’t see anybody actually being able to justify paying for the upgrade. I bet a majority of those who do install Vail, obtain it illegally.
Its very nice under the hood, but lacks additional functionality. I’ll likely upgrade if I see the return of user folders.
First lame number, 12%. That’s overhead for duplication but whatever, extra data protection could be worth it. Second lame number, 1GB. Any file over 1GB will be ‘chunked’ across multiple drives regardless of duplication. This introduces the possibility of losing more than just a single drive’s worth of data if a single drive were to fail. Probability is irrelevant, ANY probability is unacceptable.
Clearly there were significant engineering issues with DE v2 that have led to a mounting volume of criticism from the Windows Home Server Community over the past eight months. But whilst every project has its challenges, the fact that Microsoft have made such a huge turnaround at this advanced stage of the project is a shock which calls to mind the dark days of Windows “Longhorn” development, subsequent project reset and the failure of the WinFS storage subsystem feature.
Perhaps Windows Home Server “Vail” is turning into Windows Home Server “Vista”?
Three years after the release of Windows Home Server v1, we’re still without a successor, and with such a huge product feature being ripped out of the code, I’m sure we won’t see Vail for some time yet. There are clearly huge questions around how Vail’s development has been managed, but bigger questions still concerning the quality of product Microsoft will ultimately release. Having been enthused with the initial plans Microsoft shared with MVPs for Vail a long time ago, the beta that was released some time later boils down to a broad re-interpretation of Windows Home Server v1.
Clearly, with Vail, Aurora, Breckenridge and SBS v7 being developed by the same group, resources were tight. That meant Vail was ultimately going to be a platform shift (to the underlying Windows Server 2008 R2 platform), with some necessary re-engineering and limited feature upgrades (in the form of partial Mac support, Media Streaming and improvements to Remote Web Access). With DE now stripped from the product and no significant feature enhancements to shout about, Microsoft now have a significant challenge in persuading WHS v1 owners to upgrade to Vail.
With regard to encouraging new consumers to adopt the platform, Microsoft have lost a huge competitive advantage compared to other, cheaper (and in some cases better-featured) NAS solutions. Back at WGS Forums, discussion continues amongst first generation Windows Home Server owners around the need to upgrade:
Personally I was really hoping Vail would have a bit more to it, like I said I am sure the Mac stuff will have many switching but I am at a loss why current WHS users would, moving system [data] off the [storage] pool certainly does not justify the expense – which is the only feature I can see on several boards many current users are even mildly excited about.
I still believe the home server could be Microsoft’s iPad, but I have some doubts whether Microsoft can mobilize and execute sufficiently.
Still undecided. I have yet to see a reason to upgrade and for the most part I have stopped keeping up with the development of Vail.
I think WHS V1 is well worth the $100. Nevertheless, I would not pay $100 for Vail, unless the new added features are a must have for me. This is especially true since I am happy with WHS V1. At this point the only new things in Vail that interest me are the new look of the website for remote access and the ability to back up the server OS. However, this is not enough to make me shell out another $100. If Vail fixes the whole demigrator.exe problem, then I will upgrade in a heart beat.
I have no plans on upgrading to Vail with what I have seen. Perhaps a year after release. I will have to buy all new hardware and then *hope* all my data is somehow migrated over. Beta or not I am not impressed with the feature set.
If Vail was out today or there was a release date I would probably go with it just for the sake of getting regular updates and who knows if MS will introduce a nice Power Pack or 2, but I cannot bet on that, so as it stands, V1 is looking to be the way to go at least for me. So my comments are not meant as a knock, more from disappointment.
Despite the gloss of today’s announcement, Microsoft will be severely embarrassed by the decision to drop Drive Extender so far into the development of Vail, Aurora and Breckenridge. With most of the major Windows Home Server features now ported into small business-focused SKUs, the question going forward is how serious are Microsoft about driving Windows Home Server adoption?
What effect will the removal of Drive Extender have on Vail’s reputation – with consumers, and the industry at large? Will hardware vendors be interested in shipping a niche next-generation product that has already alienated elements of its core user base? When Drive Extender goes, what, if anything replaces it?
The impact on Aurora and Breckenridge is less of a concern as OEMs have been shipping RAID-based solutions into the small business segment for many years. Home Server is different - Microsoft themselves have admitted in the past that RAID is not a consumer technology, so how will data stored on Vail be protected? It’s time for Microsoft’s product planners to sharpen their pencils, fast.
If there is no solution, perhaps Microsoft should take a braver decision and cancel the Vail release altogether – get Aurora, Breckenridge and SBS7 shipped, then re-group the team to focus solely on Windows Home Server for a time to nail the leading-edge consumer storage solution that the category needs. If not, the danger is that Windows Home Server “Vista” moniker may stick.
Most significantly, here in 2010, what is Microsoft’s vision for Windows Home Server? The culling of Drive Extender rejects the original design principles around which Windows Home Server was created. No need for the user to worry about the details. No drive letters. Guidance on where to store stuff. Resilient to the failure of one or more hard drives. Compatible. Great performance. Secure. Must enable future innovation. A server that was simple to use for the average consumer. These were the principles that captured my imagination and inspired me to get off my backside, load up a copy of Windows Home Server and start We Got Served.
Make no mistake, Drive Extender was the beating heart of Windows Home Server, and without it, I’m really not sure what’s next.
Over to you – what are your thoughts on today’s announcement? If you’re a WHS v1 owner, will today’s announcement put you off upgrading? let us know in the comments.
