- Is it anticipated that updates will be made to 10 Beta that will require clean re-installs? Or, is the expectation (I know there are unforeseen possibilities) that 10 Beta will be updateable through to 10 Release?
All updates can be done with the built-in updater. This has been true since before ALPHA2, actually. Just stay on the 10-Nightlies train and it will take you all the way up to RELEASE without needing to reinstall (we already provide database migrations when necessary).
- When is 10 Release expected to be ready?
See
https://bugs.freenas.org/projects/freenas-10/roadmap for all milestone dates. We are endeavoring to keep this more up to date now.
- Docker sounds like it is a WIP. It's not clear to me how much of a WIP. Can 9.10 plugin equivalents (Plex, Transmission, CouchPotato, Etc.) currently be made functional in 10 Beta?
Yes. Plex is already functional - see the demo video I'll be releasing on YouTube next week.
- Can a 10 Beta install receive backups/snapshots from a separate 9.10 machine? Vice-versa?
Not at this time using the GUI, anyway. The currently supported replication method in 10 is more complex, doesn't use SSH for actual replication (it has side-channels now) and provides replication statistics from both sides, not just one. Of course, if all you want to do is a manual snapshot, then zfs send / receive it between a 9.x or 10 box (or even some other non-FreeNAS box that supports ZFS) you can, of course, do that any time.
- Is 10 Beta more strict/demanding on the RAM requirements? I have a low-use machine that has survived with 4GB RAM on 9.10. Wondering if 10 Beta might have more strict checks at install, etc.
No, it's not more strict and uses about the same amount of system resources as 9.10, but you're definitely already out of headroom with 4GB of RAM and if you start using VMs and/or Docker containers, you're probably going to hit a wall. More features, more footprint!