HP has announced it will kill off its MediaSmart Server line, taking out Windows Home Server with it.
HP will stop selling the MediaSmart Server at the end of the year and won’t be updating to the newest version of Microsoft’s system.
“HP has told us they do not plan to provide a platform for Windows Home Server code name “Vail’,” Microsoft said in a blog post.
Last week, Microsoft drew the ire of users by ditching Drive Extender in the next version of Windows Home Server. However, the software giant claims the two events are unrelated.
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“This news is in no way related to recent announcements about feature changes in Windows Home Server ‘Vail’,” Microsoft said.
Microsoft noted that Acer and Tranquil will both continue to sell Home Server based products, but such assurances didn’t convince everyone.
“HP realised that without the Drive Extender technology, Vail will not be worth it,” suggested one commenter on the blog post. “I agree and will not be upgrading from WHS v1. The platform is useless without Drive Extender.”
An HP spokesperson said the move had to do with its acquisition of Palm, with the MediaSmart Server team moving over to work on webOS. “We believe the MediaSmart Server team’s focus on multimedia and entertainment applications will benefit the future development of webOS,” the spokesperson said.
“HP will sell through the current MediaSmart Server inventory, and of course we’ll honor our service and support commitments,” the spokesperson added.
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