Mailbag 8th December 2010

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I have to admit when Microsoft announced drive extender was being cut from WHS Vail I was as shocked as anybody, this feature was the life blood of WHS, and certainly a feature heavily relied upon. Here I am 2 weeks after the decision was made and we are all still talking about it, I am still receiving emails from angry users asking why this has been cut and where to go from here.

I don’t really have any answers for those people, its true Microsoft have made a crazy decision, and the fact is, that it was cut based on Microsoft being unable to  implement the same technology in its business products. Surely Microsoft should realise that if they can’t use it in their business products but can be used in WHS, then just use it in WHS. I think the main problem is that most of the original WHS team is no longer present, Microsoft merged the WHS and SBS team at the start of Vail’s incarnation. I don’t think the new team really realised the impact of cutting a feature as big as drive extender would have on such a well-rounded product.

It still remains to be seen if Microsoft will throw a life line to Vail, and reinstate drive extender solely into Windows Home Server, I personally would back them all the way if they did this, and I will continue to campaign for this change to be made.

On a final note, some of you may have noticed that the forum is currently down for maintenance, we are in the process of bringing a new fresh new interface into play, with features galore, we are hoping to be completely up and running again either today or tomorrow, so watch this space, and look forward to seeing you all in there. Read the rest of this entry →