Apt is always allowed until Release and I just didn't know it?
No, apt is never allowed unless someone from iXsystems TELLS you to use it.
People have been misunderstanding what FreeNAS and then TrueNAS is for as long as it's been around. It's an appliance. It's firmware. It is not meant for you to tinker with. You don't add software, you don't add drivers, you don't update the kernel, you don't install your own stuff. Doing so may cause it to break. Doing so will cause problems during updates.
This wasn't AS bad a problem with FreeBSD as it's been with Linux as an underlying OS. Many users were unfamiliar with FreeBSD and didn't know what the package manager was, how it worked, or how to try to install stuff. However, every Tom, Dick, and Harry that comes along seems to have Linux experience, and for some reason they ALSO tend not to be able to reconcile with the idea that Scale isn't a "Linux distro" but rather an embedded Linux appliance.
So there's basically a knife that cuts in all directions here.
1) If you're a community member like me here on the forums, and you're providing support, and some Linux fanboi who knew "apt" directly or watched some video or read some blog post by some idiot somewhere who broke the paradigm, then they show up here and they're having this bizarre problem, and it turns out to be the result of their having tinkered with the base system. This is HIGHLY unpleasant for the community members, and some of them become cynical and decide to stop trying. That's bad for everyone.
2) If you're a Linux power user who just desperately wants to do your ${thing} with your ${crummy-hardware-that-works-on-some-Linux} driver add, or add software, or whatever, you're probably already used to being able to do as you please, and you don't pay any attention to all the warning signs that you're not supposed to do that. This ultimately leads you to problems down the road, such as massive breakage during upgrades. We have a decade's worth of experience with people managing to do that on FreeBSD, and it seems to be an order of magnitude worse on Linux. Now, just to be clear, if you go into the situation informed and with open eyes, knowing that you are doing such a thing, then fine, go ahead. But it shouldn't be discussed here on the forums as a complaint of any sort.
3) If you're iXsystems and you're trying to release an appliance software that pays your paycheck, and people are trashmouthing Scale because they've done stuff they're not supposed to, and then blaming it on iX, that affects the future of the product in a negative way. I would note that you specifically seem to be doing something along these lines:
I was able to tell my senior management that based on the RC, TrueNAS 22.02 will meet all our requirements. Everything worked in RC2, so it's not like I am here asking for a miracle or something new here. I think it's very strange that part of the way through a release cycle (going from RC to Release) something as major as disabling Apt happened. All that should be changed at that stage should be bug fixes, or else we run into a scenario where the release candidate works better than the release, and we only realize we lose functionality when we upgrade from RC2 to Release... so here we are.
You've made the assumption that "apt" is something you're supposed to have, but it isn't. You should never have noticed the execute bits going away since you had no business laying hands on it. Literally a three bit change that you should not have noticed.
4) It is, of course, free software. You are ultimately free to do whatever you like with it, including bending, folding, spindling, and mutilating it. However, if you choose to do these things, you are then using it in a manner other than what was intended, and you should really acknowledge that, own that, and deal with that on that basis. Anyone willing to wear their big boy pants and tinker is able to do so. The source code is available, it is changeable, the installed system is hackable, but in all cases, it's best not to blame the company providing their product for free to you for not making it work the way you would like. They're trying to make a killer product with a small team of developers. That's a Herculean task. I don't agree with a bunch of stuff they've done over the years, but I at least accept it for what it is, and appreciate it regardless.
Anyways this has turned out to be an unexpectedly sharp knife. The whole "apt" thing has been SUCH a problem that iXsystems actually took steps to actively break apt.
in terms of iX's desire to control the packages,
And, just to reiterate, this isn't the case at all. There's only one package. It's called "TrueNAS SCALE".
