We now have Drobo-V2, Drobo-S and Drobo-FS.
Considering the huge price increase (+100% !!) between Drobo-V2 and Drobo-S/FS, I don’t understand why Data Robotics could not offer a single model with FW800+USB2+Ethernet for the same price. That way, if you were unsure whether the Drobo you want to direct attach today will not be network-attached tomorrow, you could be sure to preserve your investment.
Especially since Drobo-FS does not support directly WiFi, which forces you to add a WiFi box to it anyway.
And to add insult to injury, you cannot migrate Drobo-S drives to Drobo-FS…
Unfortunately I agree with you. 
I would also have liked a stand-alone “DroboShare” like device which would let me re-use my existing Drobo, for say $200. PogoPlug looks good to fill that niche right now…
Isn’t that what DroboShare does?
philip
Unfortunately, DroboShare does not work with Drobo-S nor Drobo-FS
if you are looking to get rid of a Drobo S let me know I’ll buy it!!
I got a Dell Zino HD and decided to use it to share the info on my network so I don’t want a Drobo FS
FYI - The Dell Zino HD starts well under 300 Dollars and has eSATA ports on the back if you are looking for something more robust than a pogoplug.
And you can pimp it out with a blu ray drive for extra $$ to make it a perfect media center.
I’m looking for something to share my Drobo V1 out to a bunch of Macs, and an AppleTV. The DroboShare concept is fine, but the hardware on the original unit was pitiful, it was slow and fell over repeatedly under load, so much so that I sent mine back.
What I was looking for from a “son of DroboShare” was a direct replacement for that, but with hardware a bit better than a three year old cell phone! The hardware in the PogoPlug is fine, but that solution would not give me Dashboard access. The Drobo FS doesn’t do it for me, because it won’t take my existing disk pack for a painless migration, and it is limited to only five disks (with the old DroboShare it would share out two Drobos so I could have got eight disks).
The specs on the hardware for the FS look fine, what I really wanted was the FS guts in a box on it’s own, with a set of USB/FireWire/E-SATA ports to which I could attach regular Drobos. That would be a great product!
EDIT: Forgot to answer you on the Zino HD. It’s a cute box, but it’s Windows. A Linux version could be interesting, but an Intel Mac Mini off eBay/Craigslist is probably where I’ll end up (unless I can talk my wife into a new iMac and use her Mini for the Drobo…)
the Dell Zino HD (although it is a PC, runs a good version of Ubuntu so you could run anything you want on it) 4 usb ports, 2 eSATA ports… seriously think it is a great priced solution for all these underperforming NAS devices on the market…
Some folks will never be happy…
The drobo FS sounds like a great product. I would have bought it last summer instead of a DroboPro it it were available.
I have two Minis. One is a new Intel based and the other a PPC Mini which is currently dedicated to serving the content of a Drobo v2. Works great and it’s silent.
philip