Jump to content

Windows 7 client support


Recommended Posts

Can you give some indication as to when Windows 7 will be a supported client under Multiserver 7.6? I know the official line has been "when Windows 7 is officially released", but we are now past that point. Win 7 has been released to software assurance customers. I am expecting to use Win 7 from 1st September.

 

thanks

 

Julian Thornhill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No. See

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/07/windows-7-and-windows-server-2008-r2-release-dates.ars

 

The RTM version is now available to certain groups. We are getting it on 1st September (Volume Licence without SA). I want to deploy it on some new laptops to avoid the pre installed Vista. However, Retrospect support is a must. I've tried a backup and restore of the Release Candidate and it failed at the resoring system settings point.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I realise that general release to everybody is not until October, however Win 7 is available to significant numbers of users now. I believe that EMC's line has been that Retrospect will support Win 7 when Win 7 is released. I am attempting to clarify what EMC mean by released. Win 7 *is* now released, just not to everybody. If EMC mean the general public release date of October 22nd, then I'd like to know, so that I can plan accordingly. I'm not out to criticize EMC's schedule, but simply to discover the actual dates, so that plans can be made.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If Retrospect was soley targeted at home users then I would accept this, but it's not. It's targeted at SMB, who need to run tests on standard builds BEFORE the official public release date AND before their resourcing teams go out and buy 100 new machines running Windows 7!

 

One day, EMC/retrospect will be ahead of the game.. one day!

 

Rich

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And did you test Windows 7 itself already?

 

Did you consider It might not be so easy to certify software for a new OS. And let's not forget Retrospect's developers do have their own agenda (developing RS 8). Why should they be forced to adjust to MS's agenda?

 

While Windows 7 might be a good thing, the vast majority of users will still need RS to work with Windows 7 predecessors. It's not like EMC will always be able to allocate every resource for a project like this. Besides that I don't see to many companies switching to Windows 7 that quickly.

 

I rather have EMC slightly late with a functioning product than just in time with a less than optimal release. Although the latter seems to becoming the industry standard, with marketings "hey we can fix that later with a patch"-approach.

 

I understand what you want and why, but don't you think you're being rather harsh?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unfortunately for us Apple and Microsoft are trying to push out major operating system releases within a short period of time. Both the Apple and MS release require code changes or our products, and the result is a very busy engineering staff trying to release software as close to a general public OS release.

 

We would love to release before the OS is out, but we just don't have the man hours to get it all done that quickly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Boo hoo..

Both products have been available as beta for a long time.

Windows Server 2008 (final) has been around for more then a year now: still no Disaster Recovery support.

There hasn't been a major Retrospect (Windows) upgrade for years now....

 

Fulco

I'm sure EMC has been testing these betas (are you sure they didn't?). However after every new beta release (and subsequential RC and release itself) you have to re-test your software again. For a program that needs to be as reliable as can be, these testing projects take a lot of time. Maybe more than you realise?

 

I too wish for nice goodies like DR, however Retrospect itself is working quite well. Besides that, they are working on 8.0. Are major releases that important to you? Remember you have to pay for major release upgrades as well. Are you that keen on EMC doing major releases every year? Do you actually need that? It's 'just' a backup program! It does most of that quite well.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I noted above, our plan is to release the product at the time of the public release (or as close as possible) from Microsoft. The new version will contain more then just Windows 7 support, which is one more reason why we are not able to do an earlier release.

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I too wish for nice goodies like DR, however Retrospect itself is working quite well. Besides that, they are working on 8.0. Are major releases that important to you?

 

I think you may be confusing 'goodies' with 'key product functionality'. i.e. people bought Retrospect on the basis that is will provide ALL the capabilities they tell us about in their product litreture.

 

People have carefully written Disaster Recovery procedures, which are useless if they only work on older machines. Some will be forced to find an alternative product as duplicating or 'hand recovery' is too expensive (time/cost).

 

When EMC broke the UIR functionality, it had a severe impact on our internal business processes and that wasn't even OS related.

 

The bottom line is, I assume, that the retrospect team are far to light on the ground to actually work on two streams of work. They're too busy fixing and polishing Retrosepct 8 for Mac users to spend time on Windows users right now, which I'd imagine is now by far their biggest client base.

 

As for if we tested Windows 7? Yes, we have tested it as a Domain Client and have also tested the product we sell against it already, as our clients are already enquiring if it's compatiable.

 

Rich

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's not that I really disagree with you, but during my already pretty long career I've come to expect all manufacturer's claims to be spiced up due to marketing reasons... In short, they* all lie to us in some way or the other. Unless you think not telling the complete truth is not lying...

 

Maybe this sounds a bit harsh or too black&white, but I feel this is the way the world works, while everybody probably wishes it would be different. But if companies start telling the truth, they will lose business, as most consumers believe the hype marketing blurbs... It's a human shortcoming.

 

*) I mean all manufacturers, so it's not EMC-specific.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...