Important announcement regarding FreeNAS Corral

[gbooker]

What third-party application developers are targeting FreeNAS?

http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1361791#Comment_1361791

 

[hugovsky]

It sounds like you are trying to say that FreeNAS is good at being a storage appliance and anything else is secondary. So should third-party application developers stop targetting FreeNAS because their work is only a secondary function? I can attest that supporting FreeNAS is a tremendous burden on these application developers so in your viewpoint should they cease their pain and dump the platform?

Speaking as a FreeNAS user, Linux can serve my purposes as a storage NAS quite well and in some areas much better than FN can. Then there's the third party applications without which FreeNAS would have never touched any computer in my possession. These may be secondary to enterprise users, but most others will see them as a primary feature of FN.

but, as I see it,

I don't speak for anyone else.

 

[Howard Swope]

I know a lot of people like the idea of hardware reuse/virtualize but, as I see it, FreeNAS is mainly a storage appliance and its primary function should be storage. All other features are nice to have but not mandatory. Compare Freenas to some centos or anything else is just not fair. FreeNAS is all about data security. Ok, it can be used to do some more things. And it's really a PITA to have lots of memory and everything else just to share files over the network. But that's what it does best. Instead of having a hammer with pliers and a knife and a philips screwdriver, you only have the hammer. But it's a hammer for life.

Certainly the FreeNAS feature set defines what it is as a product. And I would say providing an appliance like interface into managed storage is its purpose in life. However, what features directly relate to, or are important to, a storage solution are certainly up for debate. Virtualization and containers have become ubiquitous and this will become even more so over time. Having managed storage with features that support it makes sense. Providing a secure way to provide for extensions in a plugin type of way is a huge value add as long as it doesn't come at the expense of the core product (and I have seen no evidence of this). I agree data security / integrity is vital, but it would not be a very useful tool if all it did was manage disks.

BTW- From what I am seeing it seems like Docker is taking the leader for containers so it makes sense to move in that direction. Also, the Angular2/TypeScript combo seems to be getting a lot of traction as well and it seems to make sense to move in that direction. I just wish it would have been as a new UI on a fully stable FreeNAS10.

 

[Stuclark]

Look, there's this fixation on the shiny going on. The shiny is beyond secondary. I rarely interact with the GUI. There's no reason to open the GUI every week, much less every day.

And here lies a HUGE problem!

A *lot* of FreeNAS users aren't Linux geeks who want to communicate with their NAS by CLI only. A *Lot* of FreeNAS users are newbie-lusers who want a GUI that is easy to understand; works; and allows them to easily set up a home *FREE* NAS.

 

[Jailer]

And here lies a HUGE problem!

A *lot* of FreeNAS users aren't Linux geeks who want to communicate with their NAS by CLI only. A *Lot* of FreeNAS users are newbie-lusers who want a GUI that is easy to understand; works; and allows them to easily set up a home *FREE* NAS.

I think you missed the point of @Ericloewe post. Once initial set up is done you should rarely be using the GUI because it should "just work". Hence the point of it being less important than the fact that the NAS functions as intended.

 

[Stuclark]

I think you missed the point of @Ericloewe post. Once initial set up is done you should rarely be using the GUI because it should "just work". Hence the point of it being less important than the fact that the NAS functions as intended.

Well, you *could* take it to mean that, but @Ericloewe has repeatedly said that he uses the command line for [every] function.
It sounds very much like there's a growing tendancy to ignore and forget about the "normal" users, the newbies, the ones who aren't Linux sysadmins.

Another example of this, which I found absolutely rediculous, was the statement by a mod (and subsequent bad-tempered banning of a different member) that "I've written a ton of documentation... over 3 years"; yet then in another post goes on to say "There's a tracker issue with instructions on how to do that" ....

FFS, a *normal* user should never, EVER, EVER, have to resort to hunting through bug reports and issue trackers to find something that *should* be in documentation!

Mod note: Edited to strike out absurd and false statement.
- Ericloewe

 

[joeschmuck]

FreeNAS 11 is scheduled for 2017-05-01

Is this the Beta Testing start date? I've been doing some minor testing of FreeNAS 11 myself but my testing has been very basic and in a VM, not on a bare metal machine nor on a variety of different hardware. I honestly don't believe we will have another "Corral" issue but ensuring adequate beta testing is done vice driving only to a release date is prudent.

 

[Jailer]

but @Ericloewe has repeatedly said that he uses the command line for [every] function.

And I'm sure @Ericloewe will be along shortly to address that statement. ;)

There are certain things that are not exposed in the GUI so that *normal* users don't inadvertently break their NAS messing with them. But there are also many more that should not be done via the CLI as it bypasses the middleware and can cause issues.

We're veering way off topic here so let's get the discussion back on track of the OP.

 

[Ericloewe]

but @Ericloewe has repeatedly said that he uses the command line for [every] function.

No, I have never, ever, ever said anything to that effect.

Another example of this, which I found absolutely rediculous, was the statement by a mod (and subsequent bad-tempered banning of a different member) that "I've written a ton of documentation... over 3 years"; yet then in another post goes on to say "There's a tracker issue with instructions on how to do that" ....

You seriously expect me to personally write every bit of documentation?

FFS, a *normal* user should never, EVER, EVER, have to resort to hunting through bug reports and issue trackers to find something that *should* be in documentation!

That's very nice, but you seem to be under the mistaken impression that documentation is spontaneously generated. Information has to exist somewhere before it can end up in a document.

Now... <Moderator hat on>

You are very close to a reply ban for:

• Spreading false information
• Encroaching on the territory of insulting other users

I ask that you refrain from the above, as well as any other unacceptable behavior. You will not get a second warning.

</Moderator hat off>

By the way, FreeNAS is not Linux, so stop implying that it is.

 

[Ericloewe]

Is this the Beta Testing start date? I've been doing some minor testing of FreeNAS 11 myself but my testing has been very basic and in a VM, not on a bare metal machine nor on a variety of different hardware. I honestly don't believe we will have another "Corral" issue but ensuring adequate beta testing is done vice driving only to a release date is prudent.

Well, it's the targeted release date.

 

[joeschmuck]

Well, it's the targeted release date.

Agreed, I just hope the date doesn't override quality control, otherwise we will have another one of these never ending complaint threads.

 

[userseven]

For me FreeNAS is mainly a NAS OS that has to do NAS things, everything else is secondary. When I jumped on the boat back when 8.x was in effect, FreeNAS was the only [quick and painless] way to get ZFS running in a user friendly and somewhat barebone environment. Right now my Corral box only does storage and sharing (I lost my jails and didn't had time to switch to dockers before the culling of FreeNAS 10) and I'm fine with it. As long as the zfs storage layer is intact and working as advertised I'll never dump FreeNAS, I like having jails, VM's, dockers, but that's just fluff. Just my 2 cents.

 

[SavageAUS]

I think people have been able to have their say long enough on this thread? Wouldn't it be a good idea to close it?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[m0nkey_]

I think people have been able to have their say long enough on this thread? Wouldn't it be a good idea to close it?

I would have to agree.

@Kris Moore @Ericloewe @JoshDW19 and the rest of the moderation team, maybe it's time to put this topic to bed?

 

[Jailer]

Same here. This topic has run its course.

 

[danb35]

I don't think I'd agree with closing the thread (though I'd have no problem with breaking all the discussion out into its own thread, and leaving the announcement standing alone here). I'm not sure that there's a whole lot more to add, but I don't think it looks at all good for iX if they're stomping on discussion of this decision of theirs--and I think it's already dangerously close to looking that way.

 

[pernils]

(Close the thread) .. pity I have started to get used to read this repeating .. docker .. migrate .. etc .. But that is not a rock solid argument to keep it open.

 

[garym]

I'm so pissed off right now. I refuse to look at the 9.* gui ever again, which is required until the new gui is done. Whats the best FreeNAS alternative?

OmniOS and napp-it UI

 

[Geek Baba]

Just finished reading through 22 pages, sad to see Corral dead, I hope someone picks up and fork it, please PM me if interested and I can get funding and resources to get started.

 

[FFK]

No, I have never, ever, ever said anything to that effect.


You seriously expect me to personally write every bit of documentation?


That's very nice, but you seem to be under the mistaken impression that documentation is spontaneously generated. Information has to exist somewhere before it can end up in a document.

Now... <Moderator hat on>

You are very close to a reply ban for:

• Spreading false information
• Encroaching on the territory of insulting other users

I ask that you refrain from the above, as well as any other unacceptable behavior. You will not get a second warning.

</Moderator hat off>

By the way, FreeNAS is not Linux, so stop implying that it is.

I am not going to be the one to judge who is right or who is wrong - but I do have to say (as fairly new to these fora) that there seems to be a bit of an unfriendly atmosphere occasionally. That is especially not very smart in a situation like in this Corral aftermath, where I guess that the FreeNAS community and iX need every bit of sympathy they can get... I recognise, respect and applaud all the efforts made by the moderators/wizards/experts, but I also have noticed some pretty harsh and borderline arrogant responses to valid concerns (and a somewhat thin skin, exemplified by the above...)... Personally, I am currently debating with myself if I should stick with FreeNAS or roll my own Ubuntu server (for home use) - a friendly atmosphere in here will likely mean that I will go with FreeNAS...