Microsoft Fails To Follow Through, Again 3
That lovely, big, cuddly, megacorp Microsoft is getting on my nerves recently. I am not one of those moron’s that hates Microsoft because I think it’s cool (though I could probably register high on many other moron measurements). I like a lot of Microsoft products, I have defended them in the past and I have praised them in the past. But these days they seem to have lost all coherence in some of their divisions.
I have bitched sometime long ago about the lack of content for all those poor people who have payed through the nose for a copy of Vista Ultimate (especially if they paid retail price… ouch!). For all those extra pennies paid for the ‘Ultimate’ version, what have they got in terms of value? A couple of very crappy games, video desktops, sound themes and disk encryption that about 0.0001% of the world might actually use.
But their latest loss of interest focuses it seems on Windows Home Server, which, as you might know I am in the process of resurrecting at home. Don’t get me wrong, the core product is superb. It runs on just about any old hardware thrown together, its backup and restore features cannot be beaten by any product on the market, and the remote RDP stuff is great.
But what could have been its crowning glory is the add-ins feature. They make it sound so simple! Drop in community written add-ins for extra functionality! Simply download to the \Software\add-ins directory and its ready to install in the WHS console. Yeah…. not so much!
I am yet to come across a useful add-in that doesn’t require some seriously hackery to install. For example, the add-in that probably 90% of users look for as soon as they get WHS is a torrent add-in. The most popular (in fact pretty much the ‘only’) is the uTorrent add-in. Let me give a brief synopsis of the installation procedure for that.
- Create a new admin account
- Download utorrent add-in
- Download Windows Resource Kit
- Download anyservice installer
- Download uTorrent
- Download uTorrent web gui
- Log on as your new admin account
- Install WRK
- Install uTorrent
- Configure uTorrent to use only ‘real’ paths instead of network WHS shares
- Extract and install the webgui
- Using a combination of WRK and the anyservice installer, create a custom service that runs uTorrent
- Configure service to run as the new admin user
- Registry hack for the service to run the correct .exe
- NOW you can drop your add-in into the folder and install it
- Finally spend several hours fixing permission issues and the like for the whole thing to actually work
This is actually one of the least technical installs! There are power saving add-ins that should be inbuilt functionality which require a combination of registry hacks and sysinternals to stop core processes from loading for christ’s sake!
The product has been out for a long time now and there are no ‘offical’ add-ins, the SDK is cursory at best. The problem here is that the product is SBS2003 with the appropriate apps hacked onto the top. But as I have said the apps hacked onto the top do a good job. The problem is that the add-ins are crippled by the fact this is SBS2003 with hacks, as there is absolutley no thought given to the under-the-hood framework needed to make this extendable. The apparent user friendliness (Microsoft’s supposed forte) of the WHS console is completely isolated to that part of the OS alone. Developers of add-ins are forced to hack their way through a mountain of unneccesary limitations and ‘should-have-been-removed’ remnants of the business product to get anything to work through an add-in.
Just look at that routine for installing the uTorrent add-in… how many steps would your parents or grandparents get through before throwing the thing out of the window?
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Wow! Um, Sorry to break this to you, but uTorrent is the *hardest* add-in to install, as it really isn’t an add-in. Most are as simple as droping the MSI file into the network share, loading up the console, and clicking “install”. Not to mention, those are the original instructions, and about half the steps aren’t necessary.
The SDK is well established and well documented. Not to mention, a lot of authors have been chatting over at We Got Served, and Brendon Grant has written a number of tutorials for how to use the API for WHS.
And as for Using Small Business Server for the base of Windows Home Server, it suited the WHS’ teams need the best. And as for add-ins being disabled/broken by the fact that it is based off of SBS, WTF did you get that information?!?! I’ve spoke with a number of developers and have *never* heard of this!
Oh and as for 90% of users looking for torrent addin…. I don’t what you are talking about. Most have been looking for methods of conserving power.
One thing I hate is wildly inaccurate rants. I understand this is your personal rant, but try to be more informed about what you spout. Innocent people may actually believe you.
Thanks for the comments Damien!
Yes of course this is a personal rant, based from personal experience.
I take your point about it ‘not being an add-in’ as it is also the setup and configuration of utorrent web gui etc too. But still there are many ‘workarounds’ to be done that are beyond the capability of the average home user.
Here is the thing, for MS to have ‘seen this through’ I would expect one of two things (but preferably both!)
1. Provided some official add-ins for the most requested features, a central download manager, torrent client, power saving etc etc.
2. Made it incredibly simple for the community to fill in the gaps instead. I don’t mean simple for developers, I mean simple for the community. A framework as simple to work with as Mozilla/Firefox extensions or google gadgets for example which are both supremely successful because people with only the very basics of coding knowledge can cobble something together without having to worry about working around some of the interesting ‘quirks’ of SBS.
But going back to my personal perspective, the SDK comments come from using it myself, and from the constant complaints from the 3 or 4 others that I know working with it too. Not the largest sample in the world I admit
The 90% of users looking for a torrent add-in is well justified. It is by far and away the most requested feature. Go and look at the post/view count for it compared to all other add-ins in the WHS forums!
And even if it was power saving…. don’t get me started on the install process for ‘Lights Out’ as an example!
But as I said in the post, I love WHS, but right now I would compare it to a Linux Distro. Great at doing the core things right, but completely without regard for the actual skill level of the mainstream user if they want anything else.
Lol, yeah, completely agree with lights out.
I’m not a coder, so I haven’t really looked at the SDK. Though, there is a new, updated SDK that has been recently released that is for PP1. And it has been stated that it is much more detailed, and includes much more explanation of the different functions and values. So that “issue” may be resolved now.
As for the torrent thing, I have to agree. The biggest problem is finding a client that natively supports running as a service. I’ve posted on the utorrent forums a few times for such a feature and basically got the finger.
I’ve also have yet to see one that does. I’m almost willing to learn coding just to make one myself.
I understand your desire for “offical add-ins” from microsoft, but I understand their lack of doing so. They’ve made the platform and the SDK, and certain things like the download manager could and probably would open up legal can’s of worms they want to avoid. Instead, they have the framework there, and *anyone* can write an add-in for it.
Other than a few certian add-ins, the setup is easy, and the platform wonderful. There is definitely room for improvement.