I wrote an op-ed piece on why Windows Home Server is now discontinued as a product.
Feel free to add your take below.
Feel free to add your take below.
Why Windows Home Server is Discontinued - Weigh in
- Thread starter Patrick
- Start date
Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.
I think in the end it was simply a business decision by MS. WHS2011 sales were probably below expectations with a low cost product at $50 per pop not worth supporting from a business model.
I have been using WHS2011 at home every since its release but not for filesharing, e.g PC back up & RDP only. I think it excells at client backup & restore and remotely accessing home PCs. I could never get RDP to work for WIN 7 (from work) but always workd fine going through WHS2011. Probably port blocking issue. Restoring your bootdisk to a previous date was a snap. Those features I will miss.
I am using a QNAP 459 which has been rock solid for file sharing for the past two years and Solaris 11 with NAPP-IT to backup the QNAP and other important files. I also take encrypted single NTFS drives offsite.
I am wondering what alternatives there are besides 2012 Server Essentials at $425? Especially, linux or ZFS solutions for WIN 7/8? backup and restore purpose I would like to understand.
THX.
I have been using WHS2011 at home every since its release but not for filesharing, e.g PC back up & RDP only. I think it excells at client backup & restore and remotely accessing home PCs. I could never get RDP to work for WIN 7 (from work) but always workd fine going through WHS2011. Probably port blocking issue. Restoring your bootdisk to a previous date was a snap. Those features I will miss.
I am using a QNAP 459 which has been rock solid for file sharing for the past two years and Solaris 11 with NAPP-IT to backup the QNAP and other important files. I also take encrypted single NTFS drives offsite.
I am wondering what alternatives there are besides 2012 Server Essentials at $425? Especially, linux or ZFS solutions for WIN 7/8? backup and restore purpose I would like to understand.
THX.
We have a WHS 2011 VM running WSUS for all of our Windows boxes... that's really all it does, though, and while I bought it to play with and experiment it didn't end up exciting me at all. Not really going to miss it here - though it might have been nice to have a cheap Windows alternative to the *nix options, even if only to encourage more people to start experimenting with servers.
I use mine mostly to store our family pictures and do backups of the family laptops. It's so much easier to restore a laptop that's been infected or change a drive out when you have a daily backup/restore solution. I'm going to miss this product. I'd like to find something similar and simple. (I'm using WHSv1 at our main office to backup our main& accounting server, and it's far cheaper than and easier to run than backup exec, especially for a 4 person office!)
I moved to WHS 2011 when the Linux Kernel showed up an issue with the Asus P8H67-V board had just bought.
I very much like the ability to be able to remotely access my files and machines via a web page from anywhere in the world. Stablebits DrivePool is serving me very well for consolidating my drives in to a single pool and being able to selectively mark which folders I want to make redundant is a big bonus. I have never had an issue with it since it came out. It will be a shame to see it go.
Maybe if Microsoft had also dropped pricing in Asia as well as in the US / UK then it may have been adopted by a a wider number of people.
RB
I very much like the ability to be able to remotely access my files and machines via a web page from anywhere in the world. Stablebits DrivePool is serving me very well for consolidating my drives in to a single pool and being able to selectively mark which folders I want to make redundant is a big bonus. I have never had an issue with it since it came out. It will be a shame to see it go.
Maybe if Microsoft had also dropped pricing in Asia as well as in the US / UK then it may have been adopted by a a wider number of people.
RB