Further Development

robandcathy · May 2012

Is this still being developed with new builds rolling out, or is this the finished product as is.
Thanks

saitoh183 · May 2012

There are always updates to make the product better but its a stable product

http://stablebit.com/DrivePool/ChangeLog?Platform=whs2

Shane · May 2012

DrivePool 1.0 is the "finished product". There should be only minor patches from now on, same as any other "stable release" version of software.

Alex has stated he has further plans for DrivePool, but hasn't (yet) gone into specific detail, and we have no idea whether that means there'll be a DrivePool 1.x or a DrivePool 2.0 or something else entirely.

JazJon · May 2012

I just posted this question about how to be notified of new beta builds

http://forum.covecube.com/discussion/609/notifications-for-latest-drivepool-post-release-beta-releases#Item_1

ryanmc · June 2012

I am in the process of upgrading my WHS v1 to WHS 2011, and I am currently trying to decide between DrivePool, and DriveBender. I do not see a lot of activity from Alex on the boards, or with new stable builds coming out (how old is v1.0.1.6008?). I am wondering if this product is getting the attention it deserves, or has Alex gotten bored and moved on to other things. Another thing is that it is impossible to see what the current list of bugs is, and what he is working on. It would be nice to have a list of known bugs, to see what milestones he is working on etc. I also checked Alex's activity log and he has not made any comments in the board for about 3 weeks, and before that it was very sporadic.

On the other hand, DriveBender is getting a lot more attention from its developers, they have a known bugs list and they are getting ready to release a v2.0 of their product.

This is a concern for me because I don't want to invest time or money into a product that is no longer being developed.

I checked the changelog and noticed that there have been many new beta versions, but their are no dates, so it is impossible to know how long ago the last version was released. Adding dates to the changelog would at least help me know that it was still being worked on. For all I know the last release is several months old. It also seems like a lot has been fixed in the BETA builds, but none of that moved to a stable release. What is the time frame for a new final release with all the bug fixes?

This comment also worries me "Alex has stated he has further plans for DrivePool, but hasn't (yet) gone into specific detail, and we have no idea whether that means there'll be a DrivePool 1.x or a DrivePool 2.0 or something else entirely."

without a commitment from the developer to continue the product it seems like purchase is a waste of time a money. I guess in the end what I am asking for is a bit more transparency. If this product is not making enough money and Alex is discontinuing it then please let us know. If he is busy with other projects, just let us know. If their are 50 bugs that he is working on, let us know. New features, let us know. I think a bugzilla like interface would be great for providing more transparency.

Despite all this I am still leaning toward DrivePool. It seems like less people have had problems with it. And the polls and reviews I have read seem to also favor DrivePool. I just need to know I am not getting into something I will regret later.
Thanks

harshw · June 2012

I think with Windows 8 just 3 months away from RTM, DrivePool and DriveBender etc, are in a bit of a spot. I think Alex and the others will have to offer features over and beyond the Storage Spaces found in Win 8.

In the meantime, my DrivePool works fine on 4 x 2TB HDDs and WHS 2011 running on top of an AMD E350 mini-itx system. I think its been worth the price I paid

ryanmc · June 2012

I think with Windows 8 just 3 months away from RTM, DrivePool and DriveBender etc, are in a bit of a spot. I think Alex and the others will have to offer features over and beyond the Storage Spaces found in Win 8.

That is fine for users of Win 8, but I have not heard anything about adding that feature to WHS. So unless something new comes out there will still be a market to WHS users.

<off topic> Also I am planning on skipping WIN8. I don't like the new start menu, and it does not offer anything over win7 that I am interested in. In addition I don't like that they are taking Media Center out and making it an extra cost that can only be applied to the PRO version. This seems like a money grab from Microsoft.</off topic>

Shane · June 2012

Hi ryanmc, for dates of new DP versions, Covecube's twitter feed might be useful: https://twitter.com/covecube

dbailey75 · June 2012

<off topic> Also I am planning on skipping WIN8. I don't like the new start menu, and it does not offer anything over win7 that I am interested in. In addition I don't like that they are taking Media Center out and making it an extra cost that can only be applied to the PRO version. This seems like a money grab from Microsoft.</off topic>

I would think MS is doing this to reduce licensing fees to 3rd parties (dolby maybe), as very few people actually use MCE, but if MS would add better support for other codecs and native blu-ray play back among other things, I'd be happy to spend a few bucks extra on Win Pro. But I doubt we'll be so lucky.

ryanmc · June 2012

Hi ryanmc, for dates of new DP versions, Covecube's twitter feed might be useful: https://twitter.com/covecube

Thanks.

So according to the twitter feed 1.0.1.6008 was released on April 10th. That is almost 2 months ago. Are there any plans on getting a new stable release out the door? It seems like (according to twitter) new beta releases come out several times a week. It would be nice if Alex could put together a stable release at least once a month.

Shane · June 2012

Alex's style (IMO) reminds me somewhat of some old-school pro coders I was once acquainted with from the (distant) sidelines - projects with long gaps between "stable" releases, but those gaps filled with interim bug fixes / beta builds usually quite stable themselves; likewise, not much public activity but quick with a succinct response if contacted directly.

Of course, this is just my opinion, and I may be reading too much into my limited observations. And Alex does read these boards (hi Alex!), so even if he doesn't post he is taking notice.

Lest I continue rambling - you say "without a commitment from the developer to continue the product it seems like purchase is a waste of time a money." I'd disagree; if a product does what you need for a reasonable price, buying it is hardly what I'd call a waste. On your request for transparency, I'm more amenable.

What features are you looking for, that DrivePool 1.0 doesn't offer?

DreNL · June 2012

I just wonder, why should there be new releases coming out if the program works as expected and has not a lot of errors / no errors at all?

It's a server program which runs in the background. I have the 6008 release running on my homemade WHS 2011 with 1x 2Tb, 1x 1 Tb and 2x 500 Gb and have had no errors what so ever. Server runs smooth, quick and gives me the data as soon as I need it without slowing down.

I might be dumb, but this is what I look for in a program like this. Full Dash integration and no problems with duping and streaming. I can stream blurays to 5 MC PC's simultaniously via the network and server keeps on giving me the data.

It really is money well spent and have to say, I tried DriveBender and it sucks. A lot of errors and well, if I see the bugs they have in the tracker, money well thrown away.

Rob · June 2012

I agree here. Alex delivered a rock solid replacement for the missing DE and this for a very reasonable price. For me DP does everything I expect it to do (3 servers / 44 drives / almost 60TB) and I rather have a lean feature set (set and forget).

That said, I am sure that if events demand further development of DP (eg. Storage Spaces), Alex will deliver again.

daveyboy37 · June 2012

So according to the twitter feed 1.0.1.6008 was released on April 10th. That is almost 2 months ago. Are there any plans on getting a new stable release out the door? It seems like (according to twitter) new beta releases come out several times a week. It would be nice if Alex could put together a stable release at least once a month.

Can u give me an example of any software company that does that? The way i see it the "stable release" is there. The beta's are there for those who like to tinker.(Like me.) As with any piece of software there are gonna be bugs. Sometimes they only affect certain people. It almost seems like you contradict yourself. You mention that you are worried that development has stopped, then comment on twice a week update. Personally i would rather know that Alex is responding to issues (even when it has only affected a few users) rather than spending his day (idling :-)) in the forums. Maybe calling the bug fixes beta's is what is causing the problem. To my mind they are basically updates and bug fixes. Every single piece of software has them and needs them. DrivePool has been totally stable for a long time for most people. Unlike a certain other product... Personally imho DreNL was very flattering in his description.

lwetzel · July 2012

Just to give an input on DriveBender. I used it in beta and into release. It seemed to work fine until I had a pooled disk crash. Final results were I lost 27 years of data, backups gone had to rebuild what I could. I then moved to DrivePool found it much easier to install, configure and use. Have not lost a thing, of course I haven't had a crash but don't anticipate anything like DB disaster. I have however re-thought my whole situation and added redundant backup. I back up server with built in server backup, clients with built in client backup and important drives and folders on server to the cloud with carbonite. The Carbonite backups are done from the drives themselves not the pool. Nice feature that DP allows access to drives directly.

My 2 cents.

daveyboy37 · July 2012

Welcome over from the dark side :-)

So now the only question remaining is how long will it take Microsoft to make storage spaces as reliable and fast and DrivePool. Sure it may work out of the box, but i think its gonna be a long while before we see I/O speeds that DB currently offers.

Now on top of that the great news that Alex is working on porting over to W7...:-)

JazJon · July 2012

http://helgeklein.com/blog/2012/03/windows-8-storage-spaces-bugs-and-design-flaws/

This pretty much tells me I'll be using 3rd party pooling solutions for some time to come.

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