The future of Snapshot, and similar tools.

My apologies for posting this twice. I posted it first as a follow up
to an old thread in ...
novell.support.zenworks.desktop-management.6x.install-setup
I am quoting some comments made in that forum.
Then after surfing the forums for awhile, I thought the issue might get
more attention, if I posted it here. I am looking for ideas and advice
on the future of snap shot, and any tools that Novell might provide to
replace it.
If I could address some of these comments, in hopes of better
understanding ...
RE: >>>
> Most companies invest in packaging tools such the full version of
> AdminStudio to create deployment packages. They then use their desktop
> management suites to deploy those packages.
Admin Studio is not cheap. After a client has spend thousands of
dollars to implement ZENWorks, now I have to tell them to drop another
couple thousand down for an application packager. I also don't fully
understand Novell's relationship with the product, they don't seem to be
partnering well together, I'd appreciate anyone else's read on this
relationship.
RE: >>
> Novell has for over 5 years now been trying to steer people from
> Snapshot
I've heard that statement made verbally by many engineers, but I don't
always see the practice following that.
Has Novell ever gone on record to state they will no longer support snap
shot???
RE: >> > If your snapshots are failing with the latest versions of
snapshot, then
> most likely your software package falls outside the scope of what
> snapshot should be trying to handle.
Maybe I've just gotten lucky? I've have not had many issues with using
snapshot, and I have been involved in a wide variety of applications.
I have seen the statement made on the forum that ZEN Works is not really
a "Packaging" suite. While that may be a true statement, because
Snapshot has been packaged with the product for so long, the mind set of
customers is that it is expected to work, and be supported.
I look forward to additional comments on this matter.

Tom,
I'm not sure what exactly are you searching for? ZdM is already providing
you with snapshot replacement - AdminStudio ZfD edition, included in ZfD
price.
AdminStudio part for preparing snapshot MSI is identical in ZfD and
Professional edition.
All comments you qouted (including this one) are personal opinions - I
suggest you to try AdminStudio ZfD edition and make your own.
Denis
"tom" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> My apologies for posting this twice. I posted it first as a follow up to
> an old thread in ...
>
> novell.support.zenworks.desktop-management.6x.install-setup
>
> I am quoting some comments made in that forum.
>
> Then after surfing the forums for awhile, I thought the issue might get
> more attention, if I posted it here. I am looking for ideas and advice on
> the future of snap shot, and any tools that Novell might provide to
> replace it.
>
>
> If I could address some of these comments, in hopes of better
> understanding ...
>
> RE: >>>
> > Most companies invest in packaging tools such the full version of
> > AdminStudio to create deployment packages. They then use their desktop
> > management suites to deploy those packages.
>
> Admin Studio is not cheap. After a client has spend thousands of dollars
> to implement ZENWorks, now I have to tell them to drop another couple
> thousand down for an application packager. I also don't fully understand
> Novell's relationship with the product, they don't seem to be partnering
> well together, I'd appreciate anyone else's read on this relationship.
>
> RE: >>
> > Novell has for over 5 years now been trying to steer people from
> > Snapshot
>
> I've heard that statement made verbally by many engineers, but I don't
> always see the practice following that.
>
> Has Novell ever gone on record to state they will no longer support snap
> shot???
>
>
> RE: >> > If your snapshots are failing with the latest versions of
> snapshot, then
> > most likely your software package falls outside the scope of what
> > snapshot should be trying to handle.
>
> Maybe I've just gotten lucky? I've have not had many issues with using
> snapshot, and I have been involved in a wide variety of applications.
>
> I have seen the statement made on the forum that ZEN Works is not really a
> "Packaging" suite. While that may be a true statement, because Snapshot
> has been packaged with the product for so long, the mind set of customers
> is that it is expected to work, and be supported.
>
> I look forward to additional comments on this matter.

Similar Messages

Backpac: A package state snapshot and restore tool for Arch Linux

backpac:
A package state snapshot and restore tool for Arch Linux with config file save/restore support.
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=52957
https://github.com/altercation/backpac (see readme on the github repository for more information)
Summary & Features
It's a common method of setting up a single system: take some notes about what packages you've installed, what files you've modified.
Backpac creates those notes for you and helps back up important configuration files. Specifically, backpac does the following:
maintains a list of installed groups (based on 80% of group packages being installed)
maintains a list of packages (including official and aur packages, listed separately)
maintains a list of files (manually created)
backs up key config files as detailed in the files list you create
The package, group and files lists along with the snapshot config files allows system state to be easily committed to version control such as git.
Backpac can also use these lists to install packages and files. Essentially, then, backpac takes a snapshot of your system and can recreate that state from the files and lists it archives.
Use Cases
Ongoing system state backup to github
Quick install of new system from existing backpac config
Conform current system to given state in backpac config
Backpac is a very, very lightweight way of saving and restoring system state.
It's not intended for rolling out and maintaining multiple similar systems, it's designed to assist individual users in the maintainance of their own Arch Linux box.
Status
Alpha, release for testing among those interested. Passing all tests right now but will continue to rework and refine. Bug reports needed.
Why?
There are a lot of 'big-iron' solutions to maintaining, backing up and restoring system state. Setting these up for a single system or a handful of personal systems has always seemed like overkill.
There are also some existing pacman list making utilities around, but most of them seem to list either all packages or don't separate the official and aur packages the way I wanted. Some detect group install state, some don't. I wanted all these features in backpac.
Finally, whatever tool I use, I'd like it to be simple (c.f. the Arch Way). Lists that are produced should be human readable, human maintainable and not different from what I'm using in non-automated form. Backpac fulfills these requirements.
Regarding files, I wanted to be able to backup arbitrary system files to a git repository. Tools like etckeeper are interesting but non /etc files in that case aren't backed up (without some link trickery) and there isn't any automatic integration with pacman, so there is no current advantage to using a tool like that. I also like making an explicit list of files to snapshot.
Sample Output
This is the command line report. Additionally, backpac saves this information to the backpac groups, packages and files lists and the files snapshot directory.
$ backpac -Qf
backpac
(-b) Backups ON; Files will be saved in place with backup suffix.
-f Force mode ON; No prompts presented (CAUTION).
(-F) Full Force mode OFF; Prompt displayed before script runs.
(-g) Suppress group check OFF; Groups will be checked for currency.
(-h) Display option and usage summary.
(-p) Default backpac: /home/es/.config/backpac/tau.
-Q Simple Query ON; Report shown; no changes made to system.
(-R) Auto-Remove OFF; Remove/Uninstall action default to NO.
(-S) System update OFF; No system files will be updated.
(-U) backpac config update OFF; backpac files will not be updated.
Sourcing from backpac config directory: /home/es/.config/backpac/tau
Initializing.................Done
GROUPS
============================================================================
/home/es/.config/backpac/tau/groups
GROUPS UP TO DATE: group listed in backpac and >80% local install:
base base-devel xfce4 xorg xorg-apps xorg-drivers xorg-fonts
GROUP PACKAGES; MISSING?: group member packages not installed:
(base: nano)
(xfce4: thunar xfdesktop)
PACKAGES
============================================================================
/home/es/.config/backpac/tau/packages
PACKAGES UP TO DATE: packages listed in backpac also installed on system:
acpi acpid acpitool aif alsa-utils augeas cowsay cpufrequtils curl dialog
firefox gamin git ifplugd iw mesa mesa-demos mutt netcfg openssh rfkill
rsync rxvt-unicode sudo terminus-font vim wpa_actiond wpa_supplicant_gui
xmobar xorg-server-utils xorg-twm xorg-utils xorg-xclock xorg-xinit xterm
yacpi yajl youtube-dl zsh
AUR UP TO DATE: aur packages listed in backpac also installed on system:
flashplugin-beta freetype2-git-infinality git-annex haskell-json
package-query-git packer wpa_auto xmonad-contrib-darcs xmonad-darcs
AUR NOT IN backpac: installed aur packages not listed in backpac config:
yaourt-git
FILES
============================================================================
/home/es/.config/backpac/tau/files
MATCHES ON SYSTEM/CONFIG:
/boot/grub/menu.lst
/etc/acpi/handler.sh
/etc/rc.conf
/etc/rc.local

firecat53 wrote:I think your plan for handling an AUR_HELPER is good. If AUR_HELPER is defined by the user, then either you might need a list of major AUR helpers and their command line switches so you can pick the correct switch for what needs to be done (most use some variation of -S for installing, but not all), or have the user define the correct switch(es) somehow for their chosen AUR helper.
That's a good idea. I'll add that to my AUR refactoring todo.
I also found directory tracking to be a weakness in other dotfile managers that I tried. I think you would definitely have to recursively list out the contents of a tracked directory and deal with each file individually. Wildcard support would be nice...I just haven't personally found a use case for it yet.
I've been thinking that I could just add the directory and scan through it for any non-default attribute files. If those are found then they get automatically added to the files list. That's pretty close to what etckeeper does.
Edit: I just compiled the dev version and removed my comments for already fixed things...sorry!
The master branch should have those fixes as well, but I didn't update the version number in the package build. I'll have to do that.
1. Still apparently didn't handle the escaped space for this item: (the file does exist on my system)
Ok, good to know. This wildcard directory business will require some new code and refactoring so I'll also rework my filenames handling.
2. Suggestion: you should make that awesome README into a man page!
I was working on one (the pkgbuild has a commented out line for the man page) but I had to leave it for later. Definitely want a man page. Once this stabilizes and I'm sure there aren't any big structural changes, I'll convert it to man format.
3. Suggestion: add the word 'dotfile' into your description somewhere on this page, the github page, and in the package description so people looking for dotfile managers will find it. You could also consider modularizing the script into a dotfile manager and the package manager, so people on other distros could take advantage of your dotfile management scheme.
I actually have a different script for dotfile management that doesn't touch packages, but there is definitely overlap with this one. That script isn't released yet, though, and if people find this useful for dotfile management that's great. I'll add that in.
4. Suggestion: since -Q is a read-only operation, why not just make it run with -f automatically to avoid the prompt?
Originally, running backpac without any command line options produced the Query output. I was concerned that since it is a utility that can potentially overwrite system files, it is important to give users a clear statement prior to execution about what will be done. Since the Query output is essentially the same as the Update and System reports in format and content, I wanted to be explicit about the Query being a passive no-change operation. The current command line options aren't set in stone though. If you feel strongly about it being different, let me know.
Long answer to a short question
5. Another suggestion: any thought to providing some sort of 'scrub' function to remove private information from the stored files if desired? This would be cool for publishing public dotfiles to github. Perhaps a credentials file (I did this with python for my own configs). Probably detecting email addresses and passwords without a scrub file would be rather difficult because dotfiles come in so many flavors.
Yes, absolutely. In fact, if you look at the lib/local file (pretty sure it's in both master and dev branches in this state) you'll see some references to a sanitize function. The idea there is that the user will list out bash associative arrays like this:
SANITIZE_WPA_=(
[FILE]='/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'
[CMD]='sed s/expungepattern/sanitizedoutput/g'
Question: am I missing an obvious option to remove a file from the files.d directory if I delete it from the files list? Or do I have to delete it manually? It might be helpful to add a section to the README on how to update and delete dotfiles from being tracked, and also a more detailed description of what the -b option does (and what is actually created when it's not used).
You are only missing the function I didn't finish. There should be either dummy code or a TODO in the backpac main script referencing garbage collection, which isn't difficult but I just haven't finished it. The idea being another loop of "hey I found these old files in your files.d, mind if I delete them?" It's on my list and I'll try to get it in asap.
And finally, just out of curiosity, why did you choose to actually copy the files instead of symlink like so many other dotfile managers do?
git not following symlinks, hardlinks also out for permissions issues (git wouldn't be able to read the files, change them, etc.)
I definitely would prefer to not make an entire copy of the file, but I haven't come up with a better option. Shout with ideas, though. Also, if there is a way around the link issues I noted above, let me know. I don't see one but that doesn't mean it's not there.
edit: I think a Seattle area Arch meetup would be cool! Perhaps coffee someplace? Bellevue? U-district? Anyone else? BYOPOL (bring your own pimped out laptop)
A general meetup sounds good. I was also thinking it would be fun to do a mini archcon with some demos.

Windows 8.1: Is it possible to go back to the old back up and restore tool of Windows 7

Hello,
Is there a way to install the windows 7 backup and restore tool on Windows 8.1?
Thanks

No, unfortunately, you have to use the one that's available.
How to create a system image
from Windows powershell (admin) type
"wbadmin start backup -backuptarget:d: -allcritical"
Where :d: is where you will save your image file.
you get the same image files as with the Windows 7 file restore.
Restore the image with help from a Windows 8.1 Dvd,
or from recovery advanced setup.
Teching It Easy: With Windows |ActiveWin |
Notebooks |
Microsoft MVP

The future of java and what is the most necessary skill to learn

hi, friends,
This is a serious question, so please answer seriously.
1. The future of java
Are there any future for java? What I mean are: are there any jobs for java developer in the future? are there any chances for new java company to survive?
2. What is the most needed skill in so many java technology?
There are so many sections in java technology. so what is the most needed one for one to find a job? what is the most promising section for one to build a company.
Thank your very much!

It's a lousy question really.
1) There are very few companies you'd call a 'java company'. There are companies that use java, but they also by and large use C++, DBMS systems, and a whole host of other technologies. If java died, they'd switch to whatever technology killed it. Any decent programmer is flexible enough to learn a new language in a matter of weeks. It's the ability to work with the theory behind the code rather than the knowledge of syntax that's important.
2) It depends entirely on what you're doing. Working with a company where databases are key? Then you need Oracle, or SQL. Working with web technology? Perl, JSP, PHP, stuff like that is what you want. Working in high performance application design? You need C++. Graphics? Take a look at OpenGL or Java3d.
The most promising section to build a company? If there was a straight answer to that 1000 companies would have sprung up already and filled the niche.
Basically, if you want a successful career in programming, don't become a java programmer, become a programmer full stop. If you think you'll be working with java when you retire in 40-odd years you're mistaken. You need to grasp the basic concepts of application and algorithm design, and be quick to learn new technologies and evaluate them against what exists already.
It can take 3 years to go from complete newbie to fluent in a single programming language. It can then take less than 3 days to become fluent in another.

The future of ColdFusion and dreamweaver stepped up to the plate before it is too late

It sucks, in order to shoot me a better integration of cross your product line and to make it work with the various devices available it was easier to remove support for ColdFusion from dreamweaver then it was too say isolated and have a flag that people could turn on or off but then you wouldn't have an opportunity to Korea and other product CF builder with his huge learning curve to sell to your current developers.
In terms of succeeding business planning this may be the wave of the future by lose away if they could wash everything away.
It does sound great CPUs with eight cores, 10 cores however many cores and threads or how much memory you can stick in a machine with water coolers memory coolers and so one you still don't write software that is compatible system wide.
So before trying to squeeze another dollar out of developers perhaps you should re consider your future plans because to me it looks like you are trying to disguise an effort to offload ColdFusion as no longer a core product

It sucks, in order to shoot me a better integration of cross your product line and to make it work with the various devices available it was easier to remove support for ColdFusion from dreamweaver then it was too say isolated and have a flag that people could turn on or off but then you wouldn't have an opportunity to Korea and other product CF builder with his huge learning curve to sell to your current developers.
In terms of succeeding business planning this may be the wave of the future by lose away if they could wash everything away.
It does sound great CPUs with eight cores, 10 cores however many cores and threads or how much memory you can stick in a machine with water coolers memory coolers and so one you still don't write software that is compatible system wide.
So before trying to squeeze another dollar out of developers perhaps you should re consider your future plans because to me it looks like you are trying to disguise an effort to offload ColdFusion as no longer a core product

The future of p2p and Stratus

Hello
I was digging around in all the docs and infos found on the net about p2p and Stratus even listened to Matthew Kaufman's talk about p2p.
I read that p2p will be included to FMS also available with LCCS also in the future flash players p2p will be included and also possible over LAN without a server.
My question is that will there always be a free Stratus like service provided by adobe or any other method to connect flash players from remote locations together with or without a server. And as I understand connecting flash players from remote locations together with p2p can't be done without Adobe interaction or buying Adobe developed software. Am I right?
Thanks

Here's another very good set of questions I'd like to see addressed by Adobe.

What's the difference between Snapshots and Virtual Copies?

I've been using snapshots if I want several versions of a photo. I have the original, then I can turn it b/w and have a snapshot called BW, or I can have a very saturated version and call it Saturated, etc.
But I just watched a tutorial where the guy made virtual copies and made changes to them.
They seemed to do the same thing. I just thought that one benefit to the virtual copy version is that you can have each variation show in a slidshow or web gallery (so for that alone, I may go to virtual copies). Other than that, how do they differ and when would one use one over the other?

I use both...for different reasons.
In the case of VC's, it's useful to create them for use in collections where you might want to crop and fine tune images for things like web galleries or slide shows were the changes are not something you want applied to the originals but snapshots don't make the adaptations easy to accomplish.

The future of Dashboard and Dashcode

I've only recently become interested in the Dashboard and Widgets on OS X, but to my dismay have found that Apple had abandoned Dashcode some time ago (although it can run under Mavericks with a tweak to one of the files), which leads me to wonder what the future of the Dashboard is.
Is Apple planning to replace Dashcode (what is that replacement)? Is Dashboard going away some time in the future?

You can use Safari to create Dashboard widgets.
As for the future of Dashboard itself, have you seen an Apple VP touting it on stage recently? If you want to be an Apple developer, you have to develop the ability to sense a shift in the wind. If Apple isn't hyping something, it may be dead. Unfortunately, there can be false positives too. Just because Apple is hyping something doesn't mean it isn't dead (e.g Exceptions from day one). But you can count on no hype == dead.

The future of Flash and Actionscript 3.0, need your advise

Hello friends, currently I'm learning Actionscript 3.0, but have been reading a lot about Adobe disscontinuing Flash in the near future in support of HTML 5. Now, what I want to know is this: should I continue my education in AS3.0, or am I wasting my time?
If I am wasting my time, what language should I learn that will give me the ability to make robust websites? Java???
And is the "Flash" program gonna be completely obsolete? I'm somewhat confused on this subject and want to work effeciently.
Please, need advise from someone who really knows, so that I can continue my education in the right path.
Recommendations to links, books, videos would be greatly appreciated that you might think can help me in this matter.
Thank you friends:)

You should list all of the sources you're indicating you have been reading so that anyone can have a better idea of the potential validity of what you say you are reading.
As far as AS3 goes, you should continue your studies... there is a future despite the fact that AS3 will probably be replaced with AS4 and on as time go by. And if web design is in your future you should follow on with learning all you can relevant to html5/javascript/css so that you have the skills needed for those as well.
Here's s link to something from the folks who know better than anyone that might help you get a flavor of the plans with respect to Flash/AS3+...
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplatform/whitepapers/roadmap.html

What is the future for an Oracle Development tools?

I mean, Oracle Developer looks like Cobol 10 years ago. It is a tool, but it is hardly to support and learn. Many of pepole prefere non-Oracle tools now.
Do Oracle plane to desupport Developer, switch to JDeveloper or license a something from a Borland one more?
It can be able to develop on C++ or PL/SQL (Serverlets), but Visual Rapid tool is preferable.

I think that the only problem with Forms
are some "basic" bugs that Oracle spends
too much time to fix them. Except this,
Forms is the best tool to develop ERP
applications (database intensive). It just
happend yesterday in our company. We recently
participated in a competition to develop a
sales system, with reports, images, technical
data, etc. The team from USA with VB and
SQL Server spent 18 months developing the
system and we with Forms and Oracle DB spent
, believe it or not, 1 month with more
functionality, specially in queries and
much faster to execute. I agree that with VB
for example, we can create wonderful GUI
screens but to do so, we spend more time,
the system will be larger, difficult to
maintain (because of more code) and many
times, not reliable. Besides I have never
seen a tool where we can run without any
change in client/server or WEB. We have
compared Forms in the last 6 years with
many other tools like VB, VC, Gembase,
Fabasoft, Obsydian, Progress, etc. None of
them could surpass Forms in performance,
development time and application
functionality (transaction, database,
query, data secuity, etc). Even GUI is not
far from these tools. Sometimes portability
is much more important than GUI richness.
We use Forms since we had VAX/VMS and
we could move from this to Windows 3.11,
Windows NT and now WEB without any big
headache. About the learning curve, we have
3 students that were able to learn and be
productive with Forms in 2 months. Compared
with our older systems developed with COBOL
we are now 2 to 10 times faster to develop
and maintain applications, with much less
bugs. All because of application standards,
less code, standardized screens, object
classes, libraries and stored procedures.
The last tool comparison was with Java but
again, the programming effort to achieve
only half of the functionality that
our Forms applications have, was huge. Not
to mention that this Java application
required 70Mb of memory to execute against
22Mb from WEB Forms (client/server only
12Mb). Besides WEB Forms was 5 times faster
to execute when, for example, navigating in
a tabular block.
null

What is the future of LightSwitch and OData in VS 2014?

This question might have been asked before but I'm looking for an update that pertains to VS 2014 and future versions. What is Microsoft's plans for LightSwitch? I haven't seen a platform with so much potential for web and client development but I'm afraid
to invest the time to learn another dying idea, if, that is the case?
Thoughts?

See:
Where We Are and the Road Ahead
Unleash the Power - Get the LightSwitch 2013 HTML Client / SharePoint 2013 book
http://LightSwitchHelpWebsite.com

What is the Future of Forms and Reports in Fusion Middleware ????

Dear members,
This is a general question that every body has, but i need a correct answer ( not rumours). Lately Oracle has been promoting its BI Publisher or XML Publisher for generating reports with various layouts easily.
1. Will BI or XML Publisher replace Oracle reports Builder in FUSION ???
2. Will Oracle Forms be there in FUSION ??
I would really appreciate if any body can expand on this.
Thanks
Sandeep

Hello,
As it is specified in the Tools SOD :
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/forms/pdf/10g/ToolsSOD.pdf
Oracle’s development teams are already working on features for Forms/Reports 11g and beyond.
And some new features of Reports 11g have been presented at the ODTUG 2007 :
http://www.odtugkaleidoscope.com/2007conference_papers.htm#tools
Oracle Reports New Features: Straight from Our Release 11 Lab
and here the feedback of one of the participants to the ODTUG ...
http://www.bloggingaboutoracle.org/archives/odtug-conference-2007-day-3
Regards

Whats the future for RM and Paas deployments

At present my understanding is that to do a paas deployment you need a proxy machine to run the deployment from. That's fine and works ok, but this has two problems.
You need an proxy per deployment you want to do as you can only use a proxy for one concurrent deployment, makes sense as the model is you are deploying to that machine, but clearly is a problem when used as a proxy
You can't set properties of the paas service if the "proxy server" is being used to deploy multiple services. Thus you have to set the properties on each release.
twitter - @simon_sabin blog - http://www.sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/simons SQLBits - Largest SQL Server Conference in Europe and its free

Hi Simon,
Thanks for your post.
We have to set the properties on each release. For this scenario, please
submit it to User Voice site at: http://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio. Microsoft engineers will evaluate them seriously.
We are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time. Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.
Click
HERE to participate the survey.

Questions about the future directions of InfoPath and Microsoft Access

Because I have been confused about the future directions of InfoPath and Access, I wrote a short blog post, which I have pasted below. My question is, can Microsoft provide some more guidance on Access vs InfoPath? If Access is indeed the
the future direction, can you please provide some pointers to resources that can help us transition.
A Short Review of MS Access, SharePoint ,InfoPath (2013)
After the November 2012 SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas (#spc12) there were a number of blog posts and people saying that Access 2013 was great and would be replacing InfoPath.
Marc Anderson and
Ruven
Gotz have short posts summarizing #SPC12 and touch on the subject of InfoPath and Access. I also spoke with several individuals shortly after #SPC12 and they were excited about Access 2013.
Since I rely heavily on InfoPath for much of what I do, I wanted to kick the tires and see what everyone was talking about. First, a few notes about SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013.
Microsoft should rename Access: If you have tried to
bing the word Access, then you know that the search results are overwhelming, because the word "access" is used for so many other purposes.
Use the RTM version of Office 2013! I was performing my investigations by leveraging the Office 365 Beta and the Office Applications that come with it. Not much was working! After I uninstalled the Beta
version of Office 2013 and Installed the RTM version everything seemed to work.
Windows 7 and IE 9.0: The drag & drop that is being touted as
"manna from heaven" seems to work well with Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and IE 10, but it does
not work with IE 9!
Non Microsoft browsers are still second class citizens (except for the drag & drop): Microsoft has finally done away with the Active X's for datasheet view (that is brilliant!) One can now see the newly
minted datasheet view in many browsers. But I still find that one needs to be in IE to do a number of key manual opeartions. For example pasting numerous rows of data from a spreadsheet into the new sheet view works only in IE.
Access 2013
Microsoft Access is touted as a non developer tool. I know a number of people who are on the business side and love Access. These people will like the renewed energy that Microsoft has applied to Access. One should note that conceptually
this functionality existed in SharePoint 2010. Here is what I see that is new:
+The new version works better:Although I haven't tested it fully, it seems that many more features that work on the Desktop version of Access, now work in the published Web Application which is hosted by SharePoint 2013.
+The new version has fairly robust browser based forms: End users can now fill in data using forms that are rendered in the browser.
+The published version that resides in SharePoint now uses its own SQL server tables. So the engine appears to be SQL Server, not a modified version of Access built for a server. This stands to be quite robust, but I imagine
that some quirks will surface due to new model.
The limitations are:
- Access is pretty much its own application and does not integrate with SharePoint building blocks. For example, an Access table is not easy to integrate with a SharePoint workflow. Further, although Access forms now are visible
in a browser, they are not nearly as rich as InfoPath forms. InfoPath forms cannot easily integrate with the Access tables. In order to integrate SharePoint features and Access, one needs to tie SharePoint list(s) to Access as data sources.
This overcomplicates the model and one may very well run into synchronization issues.
In short, although I believe there will be some people who will be happy with newly minted Access, I do not think that Access will be able to replace InfoPath and Workflow technologies. I do agree that Microsoft does not seem to have put much energy into
InfoPath. If they leave a vacuum in this space, then others may very well take over, for instance Nintex Forms.

Although I agree with the comments made by Ruven and Marc after the conference please note that those blog posts are their own personal opinions and that they don't work for Microsoft. A lot of people have asked Microsoft to clarify the future of InfoPath
and the response up until now has been a deafening silence. In my opinion speculations about Access replacing InfoPath are premature.
I should also point out that most of your comments about Access 2013 above are actually about Access Services in SharePoint Server 2013. Access Services are NOT Access they are a shared service offering in SharePoint that convert and publish Access
databases and forms. As you point out once an Access database is published through Access services it is converted to SQL Server and no longer resides in Access. Of course I don't work for Microsoft either so these are all just my personal opinion.
Having said that I doubt you will get the confirmation/response that you are hoping for from any official Microsoft channel.
Paul Stork SharePoint Server
MVP Principal Solutions Architect: BlueChip Consulting Group
Blog: http://dontpapanic.com/blog
Twitter: Follow @pstork
Please remember to mark your question as "answered" if this solves your problem.

File Server Resource Manager will not load WMI Objects on Windows 8.0/8.1 Preview with Hyper-V and Server Tools Loaded

Hi Folks,
I have a problem getting "File Server Resource Manager" to start properly because WMI objects are not loading??? I don't understand this at all because I am able to access them with other Apps, etc. I have been over my Services list as well but
have not yet discovered which Service turns on/off "File Server Resource Manager". I have looked in Windows\System32\ and I can not find SrmSvc. I found other Srm's there though. I also found the FSRM Snapin which generates the Figure below but I
can not find it in the WMI Browser. I believe the Firewall is OKAY since I have been over that thoroughly. I do have the Server Tools Installed for Windows 8.0 or Windows 8.1 Clients as well as the Windows Updates applied, which is where I got "File Server
Resource Manager" in the first place. I have had WMI and Powershell 3.0 Package, installed since Windows 7 but I run a repair on them anyway.
I have read through "File Server Resource Manager could not load WMI objects on Windows Server 2012
Article ID: 2831687" but since I don't seem to have SrmSvc the solution doesn't help me. I haven't been able to find a similar one for the Windows Client.
If there is anything you could share on this problem I would be much obliged.
Thanks again,
Crysta
PhotM Phantom of the Mobile

Hello,
The Windows Desktop Perfmon and Diagnostic tools forum is to discuss performance monitor (perfmon), resource monitor (resmon), and task manager, focusing on HOW-TO, Errors/Problems, and usage scenarios.
As the question is off topic here, I am moving it to the
Where is the Forum... forum.
Karl
When you see answers and helpful posts, please click Vote As Helpful, Propose As Answer, and/or Mark As Answer.
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