Topic: Thank You SME Community

[Mjohnson]

This morning I pulled the plug on my last SME Server.  I have been moving away from the product for quite some time, but with the take down of my VMWare 2.?? server so went my last SME Server.

It is a sad day for me as I have been using SME for quite some time.  I don't remember exactly how I stumbled on to it, but boy was it ever a great solution for me.  I think my first install was a version 4 or so.  I couldn't get over the contribs and howto's.  I had spent some time attempting to get a Red Hat server launched with limited success and along came SME with the drop in contribs.  Man was that great.  The first couple of SME's I set up had so many contribs installed it became a hopeless mess to upgrade.  Not a problem:  Saved my data and reloaded the server from scratch.  Took and hour or so and I was back in business. 

Times have changed a bit and my needs in a server product have changed.  Most of my application based needs are remotely hosted which leaves me with an inhouse need for file storage only.  I've picked up a handy little NAS appliance which takes care of our small needs, plus it uses 10% of the electrical power my old server required.

SME:  What a great product.  Rock solid.  Not flashy but super easy to set up and run.  The community forums, excepting a couple of personal issues, are awash with solutions to most of the problems I encountered.  I never really warmed up to the bug tracker, but that's OK.

Best of luck on the new Release Candidate and thank you for the great experience.

[kmac]

 I had the same experience last year when I moved on from a job that I had used SME server for the past 11 years. I actually started with version 3 in 2000, but it was e-smith server at the time. I paid for support when I first installed it and actually did the install over the phone with Joseph Morrison. I used every version since then without the need for support other than the phenomenal support I got through the forums. I also want to say thanks to everyone that answered my stupid questions on the forums and to all of the developers that put unknown hours into making a product that "just worked" for me.

[gbentley]

Ive been meaning to write this for a while but as usual there are a billion other things on the never ending list and life happens whilst you are busy on other stuff.

I started with SME 4.1.1 on 27.11.2001 - how do I know this? I have the CD I was posted out from Ottawa to the UK for FREE! I eagerly loaded up SME on my test box and everything 'just worked' - frankly I was totally blown away by a few facts. 1) A Free NOS! 2) Free Postage 3) Free Support 4)  A brilliant product!

It sounds corny but it changed my life because I was able to earn a modest sum putting in boxes to charities and small businesses and would not have been able to do so otherwise. Not only did [does] SME provide a great solution for those on low budget [or zero budget] it also encourages investment in people instead of big proprietary companies licenses. I have made some contributions to the project in the past but this thread has reminded me to fire off another payment.

The support has been second to non [payed for or free!] and the software has been something that I have come to rely on - and there are not many things in life you can say that about!

Thanks to everyone who made this possible - amazing ... top, top job!!!