iXsystems Announces TrueNAS SCALE As A Linux-Based Offering

[phoronix]

Phoronix: iXsystems Announces TrueNAS SCALE As A Linux-Based Offering

While iXsystems has been known as one of the leading FreeBSD-focused vendors with their various BSD-powered storage devices and servers as well as contributing significantly to upstream FreeBSD in addition to their former work on TrueOS/PC-BSD, they are now developing a new platform called TrueNAS SCALE that is based on Linux...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ixSystems-TrueNAS-SCALE

[zxy_thf]

Oracle Corp. v. iXsystems, Inc.

[Leinad]

"Quite a strange twist to see iXsystems offering a Linux-based platform given their nearly three decades focused on BSD solutions."

I don't think it is strange. That company constantly creates new "cool projects with great future" and scrapping them as failure after some time. PC BSD, Lumina, TrueOS, Project Trident.

[horizonbrave]

Call it a strange twist or I'd just call this company open minded

[drjohnnyfever]

Call it a strange twist or I'd just call this company open minded

Open minded is good. Having a Linux offering is great and all. I just hope they aren't totally throwing in the towel on FreeBSD.

The only "issue" I think FreeNAS/TrueNAS has because it is FreeBSD is that you can't run docker containers without a VM and boot2docker or whatever.

[StarterX4]

Right move.

[vladpetric]

Oracle Corp. v. iXsystems, Inc.

Entirely possible, yeah .

And Oracle's a company that sued Google over APIs (i.e., interfaces).

[CommunityMember]

Quite a strange twist to see iXsystems offering a Linux-based platform given their nearly three decades focused on BSD solutions.

I do not see it as strange, as I see it as a sign that to survive as a company they must adapt, and FreeBSD, for all of its strengths, no longer is where a number of the capabilities they will need going forward are developed on first, and even with all of iXsystems FreeBSD expertice they cannot equal the Linux ecosystems overall resources. With Netgate (of pfSense fame) also moving from a FreeBSD to a Linux base for their next gen solution (TNSR), there does appear to be somewhat of an assessment that Linux, and not FreeBSD, is the place to be for new solutions. That does not imply the end of FreeBSD anytime soon, just that it will be used where it is the appropriate choice, and not just because it exists.

[CochainComplex]

I would like to see OpenBSD based NAS system but I fear it will not have docker support. Maybe OpenBSD as Hypervisor. And some Linuxoid VM for docker.

[ermo]

I tried installing FreeBSD 12.x on bare metal a few months ago. That experience left me disappointed, because:

- The installer functionality feels like something from 10 years ago, what with its lack of being able to go back and forward between tasks -- this means that if this is your first FreeBSD install in a while, you can't navigate back and forth to check (and update) options and settings to your satisfaction.

- The partitioner in the installer was similarly void of recovery/change logic, which makes it user-unfriendly (people make mistakes, period).

- When I started the system with an older, well-supported Radeon HD 5770 card, it took me a while to figure out that the official documentation was flat out lying (= woefully out of date) about the default console driver and how things were supposed to work.

Other parts of the system worked great (ports etc.), but if this is the kind of barrier of entry the FreeBSD people are creating, I'm not all that surprised that people aren't jumping on the FreeBSD bandwagon in droves; the single greatest thing FreeBSD has going for it is that it is an integrated system where they control everything from the kernel to the basic userland to documentation.

However, if FreeBSD can't even keep their own house in order (i.e, if my experience is indicative of the general state of affairs and not some random fluke) I'm afraid that my only option is to conclude that FreeBSD is circling the drain but for a few hidebound developers fighting the landslide of obsolesence.