Replies to post #38962 on Sphere 3D Corp. (ANY)

[bigshaun]

Thanks for your review!!

[insightamo]

Thank you for your update

[macnqueso]

Thanks much for providing honest and straightforward feedback.

[derek32smith]

Thank you for validating a couple of important points. It has long been claimed that a major advantage of Glassware is simplicity. It is so simple that there is no need for on-site IT staff. Your experience certainly does not support that premise.

Glassware only supports single executable apps. Thats's a significant limitation. But more importantly, it does NOT support legacy Windows apps (i.e.. WinXP) out of the box. As you say, to do so requires professional services assistance from Sphere. It took months for Sphere to get a simple app like Pearson Test Nav to work. I guess that means those thousands of WinXP applications and millions of WinXP users are out of scope.

Your test results also invalidated another claim, "6 clicks to virtualize any app". Your experience was far more work than a mere 6 clicks. Requiring professional services to virtualize a simple Win XP app is far beyond the simplicity of just 6 clicks.

After five years of development and four months on Azure, you would think someone would have properly tested and documented the install procedures. This is a minor point but indicates a sloppy Quality Control process. Another bad sign for enterprise success.

And you tested the apps on an iPad. What about an iPhone? How did printing work? Did you use a network printer or a local printer? What about other peripherals such as a scanner?

Let's be frank. Delivering simple text based productivity apps is a no-brainer in 2016, but what about more complex apps that require graphics, audio and real time or streaming video. Are any of those pre-installed? The are the apps that users rely on today in small and large business, healthcare and education.

More importantly for larger shops and schools, how did the system support Group Policies and Updates in Active Directory.

Thanks

[Sirinvestalot1]

Gassware tested - it DOES NOT WORK.

Time to update this post

[derek32smith]

No, it doesn't. the same poster followed up on this post with an in-depth review, Sadly for retail investors, the news is all bad. Seems it doesn't work after all,

Oh well, there is always VMare Horizon aka V3 appliances, and Azure storage to sell.

[derek32smith]

A reminder: Glassware Does NOT Work: From 43de Glassware 2.0 Azure Testing Update

Bad news.. it actually doesn't work as fully claimed. In fact it seems to be just a demo. (Yet, we were told for almost year that a full, enterprise version of Glassware would be available on Azure, and that the venue would flow when Microsoft's global sales force started selling it)

Here are my findings:

1) You cannot join a domain with glassware. In fact, you can't do much of anything with the containers. RDP into host VM does not work,(interesting since Glassware uses Microsoft RDP to connect to user devices); remote Powershell is not setup, workarounds I have tried by uploading my own software to configure the host OS have been futile (though not exhaustive yet). Their claims that it "supports active directory integration" are surface level. They support IMPORTING active directory users into their system, but it is not INTEGRATED with AD. Ie. NTLM/Kerberos auth is not going to happen. Which makes technical sense considering that users don't log into containers using their AD credentials.

2) The license key granted has the key "AZURE-DEMO" and I have 10,000 user licenses (that I have not paid any sort of premium for). (he forgets to mention that a prerequisite for Glassware on Azure is that you also have to pay for Microsoft Windows Server, at lest according to the Azure web site)

3) Connect via HTML5 is not available. Hmm, may explain the Chromebook in Education project failure

4) Indeed 16-bit applications don't work. Well, so much for "any app, any device" and "end end of life" and "run ATM based WinXP apps in the cloud". I wonder if the newsletter author could provide us an update, or even some insight how he came to the conclusion Glassware could do all of this, especially since it doesn't. :)

This also might explain why they don't want anyone reviewing what they've made available. Perhaps this is the reason that the promised sand boxes that were "available in three locations" never materialized and ZDNet never got to test it. Didn't Peter Bookman and Simon Bramfitt promise Ken Hess of ZDNet a demo system on at least three different occasions?

[derek32smith]

Why is this post still up? We all know it doesn't work, never did and that it was all a fantasy intended to separate investors from their cash.