Adapt TrueNAS GUI and offer it commercially including hardware?

[SpeicherNerd]

Hello everyone,
I would like to know whether it is technically possible to adapt TrueNAS license to your own company design and commercialize it with selected hardware under your own label? Imagine that in connection with a client I created myself for TrueNAS. Is it even possible to use it commercially and sell it?

thanks in advance

 

[jgreco]

Don't you think that'd be a particularly crappy thing to do, given that iXsystems sells exactly that as a product in order to fund development of TrueNAS?

 

[SpeicherNerd]

sorry
Is it also not possible from license law?

 

[danb35]

Under the BSD license under which it's released, I believe you'd be able to legally do what you describe, so long as you adequately credit all the copyright holders. If I understand it correctly, you wouldn't even need to release your source code. Of course, if you're planning on doing that, you should get your own legal opinion from your own lawyer, rather than trust some random Vorlon on the Internet.

But I agree it would be a pretty crappy thing to do.

 

[SpeicherNerd]

I just want to offer a better, cheaper, simpler alternative to Synology or QNAP

 

[jgreco]

I just want to offer a better, cheaper, simpler alternative to Synology or QNAP

So you want to do what iXsystems is doing on the hardware side. Except that the profits that iXsystems derives from selling TrueNAS goes to pay the developers, and presumably in your model, your profits will be going into your pocket.

See, here's the thing. I own a business like that. I've been deeply involved in FreeBSD for many years, I made the first publicly-released appliance version of FreeBSD, I made some of the earliest FreeBSD 24-bay SATA hosts, and I still run a shop that produces and refurbishes servers. I'm reasonably well-known in the community. But I don't compete with iX. In fact, I come here and share my knowledge for free, because I appreciate what iX is doing for the community.

There's a difference between what you *can* do and what you *should* do. Yes, you can be crappy and sell TrueNAS on your own hardware. But you shouldn't.

 

[danb35]

just want to offer a better, cheaper, simpler alternative

...and in the process make some money off the work of others that you contributed nothing to. And compete with those who did do the work. And then pawn your users off onto this forum for support?

Again, AFAIK (and I am a lawyer, but I'm certainly not your lawyer), the license will let you do what you describe, though I'd encourage you to not use the term "TrueNAS" very prominently in your advertising--the license doesn't cover trademarks. But if you'll planning on a business based on others' IP, you should really get your own legal opinion from your own lawyer.

 

[SpeicherNerd]

Is there a manufacturer who offers such a good software as a plugin play solution? I don’t think many and if so, it’s uninteresting in terms of price for home users that I would like to sell freeNAS / tureNAS with preconfigured hardware and provide the users with a customer who is good himself and with whom he has the opportunity to have the NAS connected own and save data without any configuration work, it is not true that I choose to market NAS exclusively as my own software I only see a lot of manufacturers who NAS servers are available at a good price or with a lot of configuration effort

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Is there a manufacturer who offers such a good software as a plugin play solution?

Yes. iXsystems.

 

[danb35]

Is there a manufacturer who offers such a good software as a plugin play solution?

Yes, iXSystems themselves do--which is what we've been trying to tell you, and why we (jgreco more than I, but I don't think he's wrong) think this would be a crappy thing for you to do.

Edit: Ninja'd

 

[HoneyBadger]

I just want to offer a better, cheaper, simpler alternative to Synology or QNAP

I believe that's called "TrueNAS" and you're on the forums for it right now.

I'm going to set aside the legality and let's look at the practicality from a customer perspective.

What would "SpeicherNerdNAS" offer that goes over and above the customer downloading TrueNAS themselves and paying a contractor to implement it?

If you're talking about offering installation/implementation or other professional services, that's not something that requires reinventing the wheel, but you shouldn't be implying any level of official endorsement or certification.

 

[morganL]

Speaking for iXsystems, we're always open to working with entrepeneurs and existing companies... there are lots of markets and business models and we only scratch the surface of the total market.

At the moment, we are in the prosumer end of the market with the TrueNAS Mini, but there are many markets we don't address fully. Please contact me/us with any business plans that are good for both of us.