dilettante

It looks like Microsoft is abandoning yet another market niche:

Microsoft confirms enthusiasts' fears: No more versions of Windows Home Server

So just like the PDA/Smart Phone market was ditched for for a shot at the 'Tainment Phone (Phone 7) market instead, and Windows 8 will end their conventional desktop computing market to serve the masses... no more home and small-office servers.

I'm sure this headlong rush to failure is driven by Wall Street and shareholders more than any other factors.


The question is, in an era where every company that deals with the retail market at all is being pushed to produce nothing but "pap for the masses" where does everyone else go?

I know that many outfits that used to be in the PocketPC (and then Windows Mobile) market have moved to Android platforms to build on. WinCE is being abandoned day by day for all sorts of embedded computing products. Yet Android churn is killing them too, perhaps part of the reason why Amazon did what it did with Kindle Fire.

So with Home Server going away and many of the low-end Server SKUs going to a semi-rental (hybrid cloud) model of operation that dies when your Internet connection dies... perhaps Linux has the opportunity of its lifetime?

With the death of desktop Windows (a.k.a. Windows 8) some stable Linux or BDS platform might even have a shot at picking up the slack in that market too. I don't see Apple filling the gap, they're driven along the same path as Microsoft by the same factors.


Either computing will become a "fixed-function with limited expansion" universe for lame consumers ("smart" TV, game console, iPhone) or somebody else will step up. But there's a lot to overcome here. The Windows ecosystem has had a couple of decades to evolve in a stable manner and anything stepping in may have to recapitulate all of that effort Microsoft is choosing to throw away.

I'm not sure what business is supposed to do, but many are still reeling from the Phone 7 debacle. This will hurt a lot more since relatively few had a lot of "exposure" (investment) in Windows Mobile - something you can't say about servers and desktops.


Well at least this is a plus for all those who've lobbied so hard for Microsoft to throw away backward compatibility. They'll finally have their wish: platforms that can't do much of anything but a few hard-wired mass-market functions based on low-bandwidth (touch & tiles) user interfaces.

AtmaWeapon

Two words are where consumers go for an easy automated backup solution: Time Capsule. Apple's got open arms, and expensive overpriced equipment XD

I'm with you though, I'm kind of not paying attention to MS news and hoping the dust settles in 2 or 3 years. I don't know where they're going, and I'm not sure they are either.

dilettante

Maybe that's the only viable strategy.

None of my customers are planning to move beyond Windows 7 and the rest are slow to move off XP as it is. Last Win2K shop finally went to Vista and Server 2008 but that's because they'd bought new machines a few years back that came with Vista/2008 (had downgraded to Win2K for 5 years under some licensing arrangement).

By the time it's an issue the market may have shifted again.

Rockoon

The desktop will not die. The toy devices need applications but you can't write applications on the toy devices.

If I get a Surface I'll have a more well formed opinion about Win8. I am skeptical of the complaints, because those complaints are coming from people without a touch screen. Metro surely sucks with a mouse, but it is plainly obvious that touch screens are going to be standard even on desktops in the coming years.

Desktops will have keyboard, mouse, touch screen, camera(s), and microphone all as input methods for various duties.

As far as Windows Home Server, inexpensive routers are now coming with NAS capabilities of their own. Such devices are now be on a race to the bottom and I bet Microsoft is finding it hard to justify continued development costs for what is surely a market with a bleak low margin future.

Cerian Knight

Seems obvious to me. Here's what I see in their future:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Min...fic,15109.html
I'm not sure if the analogy is praise-worthy, or a joke on them, yet. Time will tell.

dilettante

I agree, without trying Windows 8 on a touch-screen device, preferably a tablet, you won't know what a truly horrid mess it is at its best.

Been there. Done that. The preview releases have all been installable onto existing touch-screen tablets that shipped with Windows 7. There is a long list of them that Microsoft has tested as well.

Ahh, but will they come with the necessary back braces or trapezes to suspend you over the screen in a position where touch-screen input will work?

Wow, does this ever miss the point. But low adoption rates do mean something, and in a world where anything that isn't achieving mass sales disappears from the marketplace WHS was probably always doomed.

WHS is about a lot more than NAS. NAS is probably the least of its features. I agree cheap NAS is a commodity, and actually has been for many years.

Classic "baby can't eat steak" scenario. Pass the pablum.


My point was that this is another nail in the coffin of non-entertainment computing. Soon everything will be media players and game consoles with nothing left for the engineer, the scientist, the data cruncher, etc. Instead of tricorders we get iPacifiers.

The immediate future looks dim and grim. Maybe Idiocracy will be here sooner than we thought.

Rockoon

This is fallacious. Your arguments require that touch input is the only input.

You are just reaching for the scenario where neither mouse nor keyboard are present and then arguing against that strawman.

Win8 has abandoned neither keyboard nor mouse, and in fact the Surface comes with a keyboard and trackpad, and not only as standard attachments, but integrated into the design itself.

Why do you think Microsoft, for the first time in quite awhile, is going to be making general purpose computers? Its because the OEM's are copying Apple and replacing input methods rather than augmenting computers with a new input method.

I refuse to listen to any arguments that presume the loss of input methods. The mouse didn't replace the kyboard, and a touch display wont replace either mouse or keyboard. Its an additional input method, so stop arguing like its the only input method.

PlausiblyDamp

I must admit to having avoided Windows 8 because of the hype about Metro and the touch screen devices... I did finally dig up my old laptop and stick Windows 8 onto it and it isn't as bad as I feared. In all honesty it is pretty decent (I am actually surprised to hear myself say that)

The initial Metro start screen is definitely designed with touch devices in mind but using a mouse isn't too bad, the main issue I have is with how you make full screen metro apps go away - you sort of click near the top and drag down a bit then the app goes into a sort of sidebar you fold away. It seems a bit clunky on a laptop but bearable.

The desktop option from the start screen gives a sort of windows 7 like environment (minus the start menu - I think) but works fine.

It certainly has a feel of trying to be two things at a time but I can imagine it is something I will get used to (another surprising admission on my part); if I am working then logging on and hitting the desktop will take me to a familiar windows 7 like system. If on the other hand I am doing more "casual" things like watching media, listening to music etc the Metro style UI does give a quick and easy interface.

I certainly need to spend more time with it to have a more firm opinion but so far I have been pleasantly surprised, I just now need to get VS 2012 installed and have a look at developing for Metro...

Cerian Knight

Your assessment seems essentially correct, but there is a subtlety that already annoys me with the move to a boom-mounted touch-screen in some of our equipment... the mouse and keyboard may become hard to reach as concern for an ergonomic desk space is often overlooked. Granted that this will not normally be an issue for most people who only just use the equipment. But it is an issue for people who need to configure/trouble-shoot the PC. I've already been laughed at for stretching myself and/or the keyboard precariously.

dilettante

Well, backing away from Windows 8 for a minute (how did we get there?)...

Has anyone else noticed how many low-end "extended NAS and media serving" boxes run HipServ under the covers? I had no idea until a recent software upgrade to a Verbatim MediaShare unit here.

In regard to their open API they say:

Qua

What functionality in WHS are you missing that can't be covered by Microsoft's standard server solution? Im asking out of curiosity having used Windows Server 2008 personally the last few years.

It hosts my content (music/videos), SQL servers, web sites, router etc.

dilettante

My comment was that killing the middle ground between vapid consumer and professional box jockey appears to be a trend at Microsoft.


The people I know who use WHS are complaining most about losing a number of streaming media services, Windows Home Server Drive Extender, Remote Desktop Gateway, a "free" SSL certificate and DDNS name for secure remote file access over HTTP, Home Server SDK support, lots of specific WHS add-ins, and other features.

It made these things easy for a home "power user" - not that you couldn't cobble up something out of a regular Server SKU with a bunch of searching for Microsoft and 3rd party applications.