jgreco: "do you know whether or not TrueNAS is even based on FreeBSD 8? It *could* be based on FreeBSD 9."
I believe you are yet to visit this page (
http://www.ixsystems.com/ix/storage/titan-truenas) where there is a mention with a blue icon which categorically states "FreeNAS 8 for enterprise"! (The icon is here:
http://www.ixsystems.com/images/catalog/storage/nas/truenas/freenas_fortheenterprise_button.png)
jgreco: "Now, as for m0n0wall, no, the entire concept of FreeNAS isn't derived from m0n0wall, though the idea for an appliance version of FreeBSD is similar."
Wrong, the world knows that freenas is the derivative of freenas from Olivier which was originally based on the webgui from monowall. The only thing the Freenas 8 differs from 7 is that the webgui has been replaced with a python-based django and uses NanoBSD scripts to create the image with some tweaks to restrict zfs volumes not to get mounted to not other directory than /mnt and also some built in packages for services like msyslog for remote syslogging and so on.
Still Daisake is distributing a non-polluted and unrestricted version of 0.7.5.
jgreco: "But that idea came from somewhere. And ... it came from me."
Glad to know about that and it is good news! However, your post is full of eulogy and prominence of "I" factor.
jgreco: "I've been doing this kind of stuff with FreeBSD longer than pretty much anyone, and projects like m0n0wall can be traced back to my works."
I do smell ego on your part with the above claim. Don't forget that there are many people who do not want to be noticed yet contributing silently to the development of free and open source software, but I can't be so much eulogistic like you!
jgreco: "No one *owes* you it, or *owes* you any given features. If you don't like what's offered, go elsewhere, or take a snapshot and go roll your own release, and find out for yourself what supporting it is like."
There is no reason to reinvent the wheel again and again, particularly in the free and open source world. Ultimately FreeNAS is nothing mere than a wrapper script to the work done by pjd. I do not use it personally because I am comfortable with command line and less wrapper scripts produce less bugs. Yet I keep on evaluating when I need to provide support to others.
And nobody needs prescription to use or abandon a free and open source project, even proprietary ones. When it does not fit, the community abandons without anyone's prescription. e.g. minix, opensolaris after Oracle's acquisition among others.
Imp: : I do not feel comfortable to continue discussing this issue further because the community, not only me, smelled rat with this approach. If you are a part of the community, you have to support what the community wishes from a free and open source project. If not, you have to proudly claim that you are on ixsystem's payroll.
Above all, none of your posts did reply nor justify to the community's concern of selective exclusion of feature in FreeNAS compared to TrueNAS!