Pretty confident I'm damn near their exact target market. Currently a synology owner, but want to shift to my own chosen hardware soon. Also wanting a basic setup for Plex essentially with spending as little time as possible setting up. It comes with TrueNAS Scale under the hood so if/when I ever do wan to take a look at anything more complex I can. Assuming they can hit their release goals this would be essentially my perfect NAS OS. Totally happy to pay for a couple of licenses now in the hopes it will help them realise v1.0 goals.
I'm definitely the target audience. lol I tried trueNAS I could get a basic media server setup but I just couldn't be asked to deal with anything else. And the guy complaining about the price for beta, it's like a pre-order or kickstarter in my book. Except we get to actually try it out and see if it's for us or not.
Same here. I currently own a 5-bay synology nas (918+ i think?). I know how to build computers, but I have zero knowledge on servers and NAS. I get it, people will say "just take some time aside and learn truenas or unraid". If i was younger with a bunch of free time, maybe. But I'm old and I want to devote as little time as possible on this while spending as little money as possible and spend more time doing stuff I love. $99? I can afford it. Plus, they said money back if I feel it is not for me
I also already purchased a license as their target aduience. Currently using an under-powered Synology DS423 and I want to start using things like Plex and Immich. Immich is having trouble processing my images and videos with that weak processor. I'm ready to upgrade to something more powerful with as little work as possible.
They should have made the beta free and given early adopters a choice to upgrade to release 1 with a discounted lifetime license. The way they're doing it they're very likely severely limiting their tester base right out the gate.
I seem to remember seeing a post thanking for over 10 000 sales and asking for patience with regards to providing them all with access. If that's true, that seems plenty of testers for the stage the product is in, to me.
I was tempted by the $99 lifetime license, but decided to get 2 more Unraid licenses instead. I'll stick with what I know and what works now. Not willing to wait for promised features. 😅
My issue was they didn't even let anyone try it before they had to purchase it at that discounted price. They also priced themselves out of the niche that they initially targeted. At $100 i could easily recommend it for friends that want to get into the nas game but at $300 its a lot harder to convince a non-techy friend this is the answer for all your storage needs.
@@nascompares I say this as someone that bought 2 licenses at that price but it does seem like there is a fair amount of toxic positivity regarding criticism. The people complaining about it are labeled the minority haters. I don't think its the route anyone should go.
Buying now is pretty much a kickstarter, gambling your money on it turning into a decent product down the line. I picked up a license, but based on that as my frame of mind, and that it already looks really close to suiting my very basic needs, making it a bit less of a gamble in my case. For friends, there's no way I would recommend it now. And by the time I would, it would be a monthly subscription with an optional lifetime, so no $300 up front buy in. My friends are adults so 10-20 bucks to try it out for a month, would be no issue whatsoever. And, presumably, there will be a free trial period at that time anyway. Given that their servers got swamped even with the $100 price tag, not going with a free trial this early on seems to have been the right move.
Thank you very much for this video. Much more deep than the LTT one, and with many more thoughts. That one convinced me to do a thing... Buy an Unraid license with 15 bucks off. For me these prices are a bit off the rails.
Uhh no ... 299$ or even 99$ for a simplified TrueNas dashboard that is not even my own and not available without internet is crazy. I get it, more futures are coming, but without LTT noone would even care about it. Which customers are they aiming at? Those with technical skills will still use free TrueNas, those without will either not even hear about it or pickup some Qnap/Synology/Asustor ready solutions.
My exact thoughts. The aimed middle ground isn't so wide for that price.. I myself wouldn't buy now, with only promises, and when it would be ready it would be too much for me. Considering the extra hardware needed, if you want an ease of use, you just have to buy a qnap or similar. The only main difference could be the number of bays. But for the non tech savvy user.... 2 or at Max 4 bays are enough.
I have installed TrueNAS/FreeNAS in the past, but I don't like the UX. I bought a $99 licence partly as a sponsorship for the concept and because when I rebuild my NAS in the near future, I like the idea of this.
I'm increasingly more excited that it's literally not trying to hide TrueNAS at all and that it's so easy to switch back and forth. I consider myself a bit more knowledgeable than what HexOS is targeting exactly, but TrueNAS and systems like it are sometimes needlessly cumbersome for smaller tasks. That makes sense, like there's all these options and the system doesn't know what you need, so it's marking all these things as "optional" for example, however that does make certain tasks feel tedious. The fact that I can just have this for my basic day to day stuff, but can jump into TrueNAS easily if I need to do some more complex things is great. Thanks for the runthrough. I'm pretty positive about my purchase so far.
I think I'm on the edge of being target audience. Anyone looking for a NAS solution is already going to be somewhat technically savvy. Very comfortable with gaming PC hardware, but having done nothing in Linux, hypervisors, or any NAS softwares, this seems to be a pretty easy starting point. If this was fully mature and all promises already implemented, I think I'd be interested. I really like the idea of the buddy backup.
I'm tech savvy, I'm a developer, I'm not a system admin nor have I ever enjoyed nor do I ever want to learn it. Now I don't have to. I had a synology like 5 years ago it was too complicated and simplistic for me all at the same time. I just know I hated it and never used it. I tried but failed miserably. This was meant for me, simple when I need it to be simple, and if I ever want to learn which I probably never will I can. What I mean is just cause someone is tech savvy doesn't mean they have admin know how.
It definitely is not ready for primetime. I looked at the beta and was willing to try it until I saw they expected me to pay for the privilege of being their Software QA team. Instant turnoff.
Waited for this, but I talked myself out of buying a license over the weekend. The reduced price was tempting, but I'm just too much of a tinkerer to like that much handholding. I'd rather just "git gud" with TrueNAS Scale and ZFS.
Yes, same here. But for me the main reason was the price. 100 bucks for, at least at the moment, too many promises (my opinion, sure) is a big no no for me. And after that.. 300 euros, plus hardware.... Turnkey nas territory in my opinion.
@ I’m hoping Ik systems just back ports the simplified permissions into TrueNAS, as those ACLs are the only real hassle. I’d rather manage my apps with Docker Compose / Portainer anyway.
I mean *deep breath* IF they can nail down the bulk of TrueNAS usage into this chewable user friendly form in 3-5 years... $300 for a lifetime licence is pretty solid. But that "IF" is gonna bad back from the weight it's gonna have to carry. I hope they can do this
You'll be paying $300 for an interface? Just put TrueNAS and watch a youtube guide on how to install jellyfin on it, it's not that hard and you'll get to use the $300 to get more drives, ram, or other hardware. Stay away from this scam.
@@nascompares You should ask them how long things have been in development the next time you talk to them. I seem to remember Linus mentioning it a couple of years ago initially but I may be misremembering things.
Please tell me one of you understands UI deving, and or are a true fullstack dev? I'm sick and tired of UI devs being shit on because everyone thinks it's easy. There's a lot that goes into getting setup. It can take months or years to make a good UI library. Even making a site can be AF even if you use something like MUI. Once setup the UI imo is easy, yet look at how backend devs avoid UI deving like the plague. Am I ranting? yes! If you're a system admin you have no boat in this race.
I’ve worked with EMC, Pure Storage, and TrueNAS, though I haven’t touched Unraid yet. My take on HexOS? It looks promising but honestly, I might have spent the $99 if I’d known about it sooner. That said, at the current $199 price point for what feels like a half-baked product, I’m not convinced. Would anyone really drop $199 on a beta to store critical data, even if it’s just for a home network? For me, the pricing feels off, and the fact that it’s still in beta with too many TBDs makes it hard to justify the risk versus value.
$300 for this? My goodness. I am not opposed to running a custom OS - I still have a 4 year old Asustor nas at home that I am reasonably happy with, but $300 for a frontend gui on top of TrueNAS? That's crazy talk, if you ask me.
Clearly you know how to use truenas lol As for someone who tried and just gave up and went back to using windows as a media server only, because I didn't understand trueNAS users, pools, groups, permissions, storage, etc. But want a local media server and don't want to be a burden to those I know in person that know, as I feel that pain myself. And I don't like asking questions in forums since people are normally assholes or don't understand the question. HexOS is worth it. I would've bought it at $300. I'm just lucky that they needed capital and guinea pigs.
been looking into tinkering with a NAS for awhile now and this seems perfect for me as a beginner but that price tag for what is essentially a front end in beta with lackluster feature support that might get better however long into the future is *currently* off putting but I see the potential
I have been looking at running a NAS for a while, and now my wife has just upgraded her PC I have a free system for it. I know computers, a little bit of Linux but nothing about network storage, so I'm probably the target audience. $100 for easy set up of network folders and Plex, thats like 90% of what I was looking to do anyway, so after a little thought I got the early version. Still waiting for the invite, but looking forward to giving it a go, and there are lots of guides for TrueNAS so I should be able to work my way through the remaining 10% of what I want (minecraft server).
I was very tempted by this at $99, but I don't like the dark pattern that HexOS are implementing with the pricing. I'm not putting any money down without any kind of real reviews, and no pipeline for what other apps are going to be supported going forwards. I want Home Assistant and Pi-Hole support for this to be useful to me, but there's no indication as to whether they'll be supported any time soon. I think I'm going to look into learning TrueNAS instead.
So all functionality of this tool requires a cloud connected interface? Why would anyone want a NAS that is essentially owned by the software company that makes the OS? Am I wrong here? Whats stopping them from having access to everything on my storage if authentication goes through their servers?
ZimaOS, based on Casa OS, is free and provides all this capability. ZimaOS also has local administration, not the cloud administration that this system has.
Well I think they're banking on the fact that linus is fans will pay it just to support the channel. You see countless anecdotes of people that are like "I couldn't decide which color so I bought all of the screwdrivers that he charges for." Eventually they're going to run out of that kind of clientele but it's going to carry them a little of the way. Which is another reason it rubs me the wrong way
Although I should specify they're not actually supporting the channel this way You're just supporting Linus. But I don't think people make distinction. They treat it like he's just some cool guy with a TH-cam channel and not the owner of a very large company worth maybe a hundred million dollars
HI, if anyone could help me out from my understanding hexos is directly interlinked with truenas? So my question is could i intall the hexos but use truenas 90% of the time and if i get stuck or when newer features get realeased switch back to using hex os. Is there a way to directly access the truenas GUI or do i have to navigate throught hexos every single time? Many thanks
I like what I see on a conceptual level, but my absolute biggest criticism at this point in time is the pricing. I feel like there's just a massive disconnect between the pricing and their target audience. Clearly this is not for me, and I'd argue not for most people watching your channel, but we're also the people more likely to be able to justify dropping 300 on a lifetime license to an OS. But this isn't aimed at us, this is aimed at people who really aren't as familiar with all this. Something you might recommend to your friend photographer after seeing their mountain of external drives sort of thing. Convincing someone completely new to the space to drop that much money on an OS (in addition to the hardware, I may add) just doesn't make much sense at all when you'd be better off just recommending they grab a qnap or synology. Honestly what I feel would be a much better path for them to take going forward, is to 1) reduce the price to be more reasonable but also 2) work out a vendor solution where they could mass sell licenses to companies like say Aoostar so they can come preloaded with something like this, because they would be a fantastic match.
As someone who used synology about 10 years ago I can't agree. The thing went to waste because I found it too complicated and cumbersome to use. I gave it to goodwill since I didn't know what to do with it, it was a gift. And if there's one thing I can't stand is being unable to appreciate something someone gave me as a gift. I will never suggest synology because of that experience. I do have a friend who loves his synology products, so maybe they've come a long way. As for hexOS so far for me, as stated in the video is pretty light on features, is great for what the beta is. I was able to easily create an image. Install it, create some users, create a pool, some directories that are private, add a photo server to store things, etc. I'm not interested in plex, but can respect why it was important they get that since many use plex. Will HexOS be useful in this beta state? Not really, but maybe this time next year It'll be what I want, and I just have to slowly grow with it. If not, atleast it's setup to a point that I can fall back on truenas and install apps, because that's all I understand from truenas.
I know enough to get in trouble lol. I bought the beta AND I don’t even have a machine to put in on yet! Video idea! What machine would be best for someone like me to install this OS.
The build team is way too small at the moment, and it will be increasingly more demanding on their development time to catch up to the outstanding issues and continue to balance that with future growth. In 6 months of its release, they're going to be hit with a new challenge called customer service and dealing with technical issues with each user who will ultimately have different systems, with different sets of issues. It will drown the company and leave a bitter taste on the target audience, who will be forced to learn TrueNas despite wanting to avoid it in the first place. There are now more robust options out there if Synology isn't preferred, and to be honest, the dreamers out there best come back to reality and stop trying to get into building their own systems if they don't have the skill or will to deal with enterprise grade operating systems.
$99? Pretty much a good buy if you don’t have the time to learn and read about TrueNAS scale. $199? Only worth it if you already have the hardware to run HexOS on $299? That’s overextending it. At this price point, even after all the promised features are delivered, the price only makes sense if you need a hardware that is not available from major NAS brands like Synology, QNAP, Asus. Otherwise, regular users can just add a few more bucks for the hardware, and get the tried and tested NAS systems from the manufacturers above.
That's a lot of maybe, perhaps, and in the future. It might be better to just describe things as they currently are. You said you're biting your tounge a lot because simplicity is the point. But isn't the point of this channel to get your full informed opinion and useful information? Don't hold back.
I see your point, but this is a beta (and quite an early beta at that), so it's tough to be hard on it for lacking features that are on the roadmap for a full release. If a 1.0 rolls out...and it's full of holes...different story! Can't very well comparing it too overtly to other OS' or even vanilla TrueNAS Scale at this point (even when I DO in the video, it's possibly a little harsh this early on). Trust me. When this is fully out (likely even before them as an RC), I'll be no holds barred!
Yep, I should have covered this. Learnt from reading the forum posts since recording about how much better Etcher handles the usb booter. Thanks for sharing bud
While the idea is great, it seems like a profit making business off the back of open source software, $300 for license, With prices like that I get the feeling they will ride this apple cart until they are no longer selling licenses then drop it, Money seems the real motive here
The company behind truenas is also an investor, the makers of HexOS came from Unraid. I do not think they are in it for the short term with how they are stacked. And its not just 300, it is 300 one time and never again for all your upgrades, system changes, and updates. Yes 300 as it is today ehh. Glad I got the 99 deal. But a year from now. It would have paid for it self just in the time it takes to tinker in truenas to fix and add things for me.
This is a cashgrab with future subscription grab, theres no other explanation for it, they made it online only, and only after a backlash, said they gonna do the offline ui as well, which im pretty sure, linus or someone, said, its gonna be worse than the online only version, i had high hopes for this, but as soon as they revealed thier intentions, everything is clear and a big no for me. Also, LTT's video about it, is just laughable, they just showed few cool things about it (yes it has few cool features, but id rather use casaos/zimaos for these cool few features and have it for free ), quickly said its still beta so not perfect blablabla, and thats it...
Hexos has stated they always were going to make a local dash board but they did not communicate it well and it was thought they never were. But it was on the road map, they just moved it up. And second for the cash grap part, truenas is also invested financially into hexos. They are partners as listed on truenas site. So even truenas them self have a leg in this race. Not so sure this will be a cash grab.
This is terrible, especially with the pricing, most of the turn key nas solutions are just as simple to use, synology for example, much better to put that $300 towards something like that, i can't see hexos lasting once they run out of investor money.
Synology is not nearly as easy to use from a user aspect. One place to create a user and folder. You can easily select who has access to what from the same location. And on top of that, you can only upgrade synology ram at best. Hexos can be on way stronger hardware.
Paying $299 for what is essentially a skin over TrueNAS feels like a ripoff. Instead, consider donating to FreeBSD, investing in unRAID, or putting that money toward additional hardware-it’ll provide far more value
If you’re not able to take the couple of hours to learn about how to set up truenas, then by all means… I still mean it’s way overpriced and the online only portal is a gaping security hole. won’t touch it
lol I feel like it's more like a lifetime not a couple of hours. TrueNAS documentation imo is an absolute joke. But I also believe that tech people are absolutely the WORST people to make documentation. They make it for people who already know how to use it, not for people who are new, or want to learn. As a developer and someone who's written guides at work I understand how bad they are. It's why Interns are the best to go to so someone can tell you "I don't understand any of this." I love me a good intern.
Well lets be fair, its a couple hourse this month, then a year from now you update or all new folders and have to relearn, then you update and new permission standards for the zfs pool becuase you not only updated truenas but the zfs version and things do not work how they did a year ago so you need to relearn it again. Time is money. And 300 for a one time payment is perfect for me where i do not want to do my job at home.
I get why this would be an easy way into the world of NAS, but portraiting it like you need to learn a completely different way of setting up your storage with every version of truenas is not my idea of being fair. Each to their own i guess, if you want to pay $300 for a potentially huge security hole, by all means…
Pretty confident I'm damn near their exact target market.
Currently a synology owner, but want to shift to my own chosen hardware soon. Also wanting a basic setup for Plex essentially with spending as little time as possible setting up. It comes with TrueNAS Scale under the hood so if/when I ever do wan to take a look at anything more complex I can.
Assuming they can hit their release goals this would be essentially my perfect NAS OS. Totally happy to pay for a couple of licenses now in the hopes it will help them realise v1.0 goals.
If it saves me an hour or 2 setting anything up, then it's already paid for itself.
I'm definitely the target audience. lol I tried trueNAS I could get a basic media server setup but I just couldn't be asked to deal with anything else. And the guy complaining about the price for beta, it's like a pre-order or kickstarter in my book. Except we get to actually try it out and see if it's for us or not.
Same here. I currently own a 5-bay synology nas (918+ i think?). I know how to build computers, but I have zero knowledge on servers and NAS. I get it, people will say "just take some time aside and learn truenas or unraid". If i was younger with a bunch of free time, maybe. But I'm old and I want to devote as little time as possible on this while spending as little money as possible and spend more time doing stuff I love. $99? I can afford it. Plus, they said money back if I feel it is not for me
I also already purchased a license as their target aduience. Currently using an under-powered Synology DS423 and I want to start using things like Plex and Immich. Immich is having trouble processing my images and videos with that weak processor. I'm ready to upgrade to something more powerful with as little work as possible.
UNRAID
I am the target for HexOS, I hope it works well for me.
Been waiting for this :)
They should have made the beta free and given early adopters a choice to upgrade to release 1 with a discounted lifetime license. The way they're doing it they're very likely severely limiting their tester base right out the gate.
yes, I agree.
I seem to remember seeing a post thanking for over 10 000 sales and asking for patience with regards to providing them all with access. If that's true, that seems plenty of testers for the stage the product is in, to me.
I mean they broke 25k sales. That's a lot of beta testers. Probably way too many for a team of 3 lol.
Thank you for your work, it's fantastic when you provide the option to listen to your videos in different languages. ;)
I was tempted by the $99 lifetime license, but decided to get 2 more Unraid licenses instead. I'll stick with what I know and what works now. Not willing to wait for promised features. 😅
As someone newly getting into homelab, it really is hard to see why I should not just go with unraid over truenas/HexOS
TWO UnRAID licenses ... WELL LOOK AT HIS LORDSHIP OVER THERE!!! *nibbles crisp sandwich*
My issue was they didn't even let anyone try it before they had to purchase it at that discounted price. They also priced themselves out of the niche that they initially targeted. At $100 i could easily recommend it for friends that want to get into the nas game but at $300 its a lot harder to convince a non-techy friend this is the answer for all your storage needs.
I do wonder why there wasn't a free beta test..aside from the QC aspect, it would get alot more feedback and traction
@@nascompares I say this as someone that bought 2 licenses at that price but it does seem like there is a fair amount of toxic positivity regarding criticism. The people complaining about it are labeled the minority haters. I don't think its the route anyone should go.
Buying now is pretty much a kickstarter, gambling your money on it turning into a decent product down the line. I picked up a license, but based on that as my frame of mind, and that it already looks really close to suiting my very basic needs, making it a bit less of a gamble in my case.
For friends, there's no way I would recommend it now. And by the time I would, it would be a monthly subscription with an optional lifetime, so no $300 up front buy in. My friends are adults so 10-20 bucks to try it out for a month, would be no issue whatsoever. And, presumably, there will be a free trial period at that time anyway. Given that their servers got swamped even with the $100 price tag, not going with a free trial this early on seems to have been the right move.
I figured the cost mostly covered the True NAS license. Either way it seemed worth a bit of a gamble. Though 300 is steeeeeep
@@AAstebs truenas is free for the general consumer but also truenas is a sponsor of hexos
Thank you very much for this video. Much more deep than the LTT one, and with many more thoughts. That one convinced me to do a thing... Buy an Unraid license with 15 bucks off.
For me these prices are a bit off the rails.
As a lot of people said this is too expensive for beginners. For 299 I bought 4 4tb used wd reds and a good lsi card.
Uhh no ... 299$ or even 99$ for a simplified TrueNas dashboard that is not even my own and not available without internet is crazy.
I get it, more futures are coming, but without LTT noone would even care about it.
Which customers are they aiming at? Those with technical skills will still use free TrueNas, those without will either not even hear about it or pickup some Qnap/Synology/Asustor ready solutions.
It's for the intermediary ones.
When you install a NAS for a friend for example.
My exact thoughts. The aimed middle ground isn't so wide for that price.. I myself wouldn't buy now, with only promises, and when it would be ready it would be too much for me. Considering the extra hardware needed, if you want an ease of use, you just have to buy a qnap or similar. The only main difference could be the number of bays. But for the non tech savvy user.... 2 or at Max 4 bays are enough.
I have installed TrueNAS/FreeNAS in the past, but I don't like the UX.
I bought a $99 licence partly as a sponsorship for the concept and because when I rebuild my NAS in the near future, I like the idea of this.
I'm increasingly more excited that it's literally not trying to hide TrueNAS at all and that it's so easy to switch back and forth. I consider myself a bit more knowledgeable than what HexOS is targeting exactly, but TrueNAS and systems like it are sometimes needlessly cumbersome for smaller tasks. That makes sense, like there's all these options and the system doesn't know what you need, so it's marking all these things as "optional" for example, however that does make certain tasks feel tedious.
The fact that I can just have this for my basic day to day stuff, but can jump into TrueNAS easily if I need to do some more complex things is great.
Thanks for the runthrough. I'm pretty positive about my purchase so far.
I like your sweater Sonic😊
I think I'm on the edge of being target audience. Anyone looking for a NAS solution is already going to be somewhat technically savvy. Very comfortable with gaming PC hardware, but having done nothing in Linux, hypervisors, or any NAS softwares, this seems to be a pretty easy starting point. If this was fully mature and all promises already implemented, I think I'd be interested. I really like the idea of the buddy backup.
I'm tech savvy, I'm a developer, I'm not a system admin nor have I ever enjoyed nor do I ever want to learn it. Now I don't have to. I had a synology like 5 years ago it was too complicated and simplistic for me all at the same time. I just know I hated it and never used it. I tried but failed miserably. This was meant for me, simple when I need it to be simple, and if I ever want to learn which I probably never will I can. What I mean is just cause someone is tech savvy doesn't mean they have admin know how.
It definitely is not ready for primetime. I looked at the beta and was willing to try it until I saw they expected me to pay for the privilege of being their Software QA team. Instant turnoff.
Waited for this, but I talked myself out of buying a license over the weekend. The reduced price was tempting, but I'm just too much of a tinkerer to like that much handholding. I'd rather just "git gud" with TrueNAS Scale and ZFS.
Yes, same here. But for me the main reason was the price. 100 bucks for, at least at the moment, too many promises (my opinion, sure) is a big no no for me. And after that.. 300 euros, plus hardware.... Turnkey nas territory in my opinion.
@ I’m hoping Ik systems just back ports the simplified permissions into TrueNAS, as those ACLs are the only real hassle. I’d rather manage my apps with Docker Compose / Portainer anyway.
$300 for a TrueNAS front end gui is crazy work
I mean *deep breath* IF they can nail down the bulk of TrueNAS usage into this chewable user friendly form in 3-5 years... $300 for a lifetime licence is pretty solid. But that "IF" is gonna bad back from the weight it's gonna have to carry. I hope they can do this
I will jump on HexOS once it allows for Jellyfin. I always wanted a NAS and this looks like a great place to start for me.
You'll be paying $300 for an interface? Just put TrueNAS and watch a youtube guide on how to install jellyfin on it, it's not that hard and you'll get to use the $300 to get more drives, ram, or other hardware. Stay away from this scam.
Honestly I expected a lot more for years of development than a TrueNAS wrapper.
To be fair, we don't know how long development has been.. but I see your point!
@@nascompares You should ask them how long things have been in development the next time you talk to them. I seem to remember Linus mentioning it a couple of years ago initially but I may be misremembering things.
@@imreloadinI recall that as well
@@nascompareswell they du have TH-cam videos talking about how it's in development years ago
Please tell me one of you understands UI deving, and or are a true fullstack dev? I'm sick and tired of UI devs being shit on because everyone thinks it's easy. There's a lot that goes into getting setup. It can take months or years to make a good UI library. Even making a site can be AF even if you use something like MUI. Once setup the UI imo is easy, yet look at how backend devs avoid UI deving like the plague. Am I ranting? yes! If you're a system admin you have no boat in this race.
slowing the video down I still can't hear what hardware You are using... Looks neat :-D
I’ve worked with EMC, Pure Storage, and TrueNAS, though I haven’t touched Unraid yet. My take on HexOS? It looks promising but honestly, I might have spent the $99 if I’d known about it sooner.
That said, at the current $199 price point for what feels like a half-baked product, I’m not convinced. Would anyone really drop $199 on a beta to store critical data, even if it’s just for a home network? For me, the pricing feels off, and the fact that it’s still in beta with too many TBDs makes it hard to justify the risk versus value.
$300 for this? My goodness. I am not opposed to running a custom OS - I still have a 4 year old Asustor nas at home that I am reasonably happy with, but $300 for a frontend gui on top of TrueNAS? That's crazy talk, if you ask me.
Clearly you know how to use truenas lol As for someone who tried and just gave up and went back to using windows as a media server only, because I didn't understand trueNAS users, pools, groups, permissions, storage, etc. But want a local media server and don't want to be a burden to those I know in person that know, as I feel that pain myself. And I don't like asking questions in forums since people are normally assholes or don't understand the question. HexOS is worth it. I would've bought it at $300. I'm just lucky that they needed capital and guinea pigs.
been looking into tinkering with a NAS for awhile now and this seems perfect for me as a beginner
but that price tag for what is essentially a front end in beta with lackluster feature support that might get better however long into the future is *currently* off putting
but I see the potential
I think more my problem is with that its one server license so you need to pay for every server you have
I have been looking at running a NAS for a while, and now my wife has just upgraded her PC I have a free system for it. I know computers, a little bit of Linux but nothing about network storage, so I'm probably the target audience. $100 for easy set up of network folders and Plex, thats like 90% of what I was looking to do anyway, so after a little thought I got the early version. Still waiting for the invite, but looking forward to giving it a go, and there are lots of guides for TrueNAS so I should be able to work my way through the remaining 10% of what I want (minecraft server).
“I remind me self that this is just a beatuh.”
Truenas is way to complicated for the busy / average person.
I was very tempted by this at $99, but I don't like the dark pattern that HexOS are implementing with the pricing. I'm not putting any money down without any kind of real reviews, and no pipeline for what other apps are going to be supported going forwards.
I want Home Assistant and Pi-Hole support for this to be useful to me, but there's no indication as to whether they'll be supported any time soon.
I think I'm going to look into learning TrueNAS instead.
So all functionality of this tool requires a cloud connected interface? Why would anyone want a NAS that is essentially owned by the software company that makes the OS? Am I wrong here? Whats stopping them from having access to everything on my storage if authentication goes through their servers?
ZimaOS, based on Casa OS, is free and provides all this capability. ZimaOS also has local administration, not the cloud administration that this system has.
Nice suggestion but unfortunately it's full of bugs, I just tried it, was very frustrating
@gambitgambitgambit yes there will be bugs. Just list them and let them know. Otherwise, how can they improve the software?
A hefty price for a software still in beta
I bet they will not keep 300$ price for long.
Well I think they're banking on the fact that linus is fans will pay it just to support the channel. You see countless anecdotes of people that are like "I couldn't decide which color so I bought all of the screwdrivers that he charges for." Eventually they're going to run out of that kind of clientele but it's going to carry them a little of the way. Which is another reason it rubs me the wrong way
Although I should specify they're not actually supporting the channel this way You're just supporting Linus. But I don't think people make distinction. They treat it like he's just some cool guy with a TH-cam channel and not the owner of a very large company worth maybe a hundred million dollars
HI, if anyone could help me out from my understanding hexos is directly interlinked with truenas? So my question is could i intall the hexos but use truenas 90% of the time and if i get stuck or when newer features get realeased switch back to using hex os. Is there a way to directly access the truenas GUI or do i have to navigate throught hexos every single time? Many thanks
WOO HOO ! Nice thanks for this !! Something to try in 2025
I am very interested ( very time poor)
Strange pricing decision.
It looks like software my sister could setup and use :-)
I like what I see on a conceptual level, but my absolute biggest criticism at this point in time is the pricing. I feel like there's just a massive disconnect between the pricing and their target audience.
Clearly this is not for me, and I'd argue not for most people watching your channel, but we're also the people more likely to be able to justify dropping 300 on a lifetime license to an OS. But this isn't aimed at us, this is aimed at people who really aren't as familiar with all this. Something you might recommend to your friend photographer after seeing their mountain of external drives sort of thing. Convincing someone completely new to the space to drop that much money on an OS (in addition to the hardware, I may add) just doesn't make much sense at all when you'd be better off just recommending they grab a qnap or synology.
Honestly what I feel would be a much better path for them to take going forward, is to 1) reduce the price to be more reasonable but also 2) work out a vendor solution where they could mass sell licenses to companies like say Aoostar so they can come preloaded with something like this, because they would be a fantastic match.
As someone who used synology about 10 years ago I can't agree. The thing went to waste because I found it too complicated and cumbersome to use. I gave it to goodwill since I didn't know what to do with it, it was a gift. And if there's one thing I can't stand is being unable to appreciate something someone gave me as a gift. I will never suggest synology because of that experience. I do have a friend who loves his synology products, so maybe they've come a long way.
As for hexOS so far for me, as stated in the video is pretty light on features, is great for what the beta is. I was able to easily create an image. Install it, create some users, create a pool, some directories that are private, add a photo server to store things, etc. I'm not interested in plex, but can respect why it was important they get that since many use plex. Will HexOS be useful in this beta state? Not really, but maybe this time next year It'll be what I want, and I just have to slowly grow with it. If not, atleast it's setup to a point that I can fall back on truenas and install apps, because that's all I understand from truenas.
I know enough to get in trouble lol. I bought the beta AND I don’t even have a machine to put in on yet!
Video idea!
What machine would be best for someone like me to install this OS.
I'm sure many many of people of bought it is in the same situation, such as myself.
The build team is way too small at the moment, and it will be increasingly more demanding on their development time to catch up to the outstanding issues and continue to balance that with future growth. In 6 months of its release, they're going to be hit with a new challenge called customer service and dealing with technical issues with each user who will ultimately have different systems, with different sets of issues. It will drown the company and leave a bitter taste on the target audience, who will be forced to learn TrueNas despite wanting to avoid it in the first place. There are now more robust options out there if Synology isn't preferred, and to be honest, the dreamers out there best come back to reality and stop trying to get into building their own systems if they don't have the skill or will to deal with enterprise grade operating systems.
$99? Pretty much a good buy if you don’t have the time to learn and read about TrueNAS scale.
$199? Only worth it if you already have the hardware to run HexOS on
$299? That’s overextending it. At this price point, even after all the promised features are delivered, the price only makes sense if you need a hardware that is not available from major NAS brands like Synology, QNAP, Asus. Otherwise, regular users can just add a few more bucks for the hardware, and get the tried and tested NAS systems from the manufacturers above.
XMas Pullover ♥️🎄😅
Yep..CUTTING EDGE FASHION (for approx 19 more days)
That's a lot of maybe, perhaps, and in the future. It might be better to just describe things as they currently are. You said you're biting your tounge a lot because simplicity is the point. But isn't the point of this channel to get your full informed opinion and useful information? Don't hold back.
I see your point, but this is a beta (and quite an early beta at that), so it's tough to be hard on it for lacking features that are on the roadmap for a full release. If a 1.0 rolls out...and it's full of holes...different story! Can't very well comparing it too overtly to other OS' or even vanilla TrueNAS Scale at this point (even when I DO in the video, it's possibly a little harsh this early on). Trust me. When this is fully out (likely even before them as an RC), I'll be no holds barred!
$200 to beta test a TrueNas wrapper. Naaa dawg.
I'd like to support them but I'm a happy unraid customer and couldn't even justify the $99 cost
Minor note people are struggling with Rufus atm, better to stick with Balena Etcher
Yep, I should have covered this. Learnt from reading the forum posts since recording about how much better Etcher handles the usb booter. Thanks for sharing bud
@@nascompares I am one of those who had flawless Rufus performance. Didn't do anything but choose the ISO and let it ride.
While the idea is great, it seems like a profit making business off the back of open source software, $300 for license, With prices like that I get the feeling they will ride this apple cart until they are no longer selling licenses then drop it, Money seems the real motive here
The company behind truenas is also an investor, the makers of HexOS came from Unraid. I do not think they are in it for the short term with how they are stacked. And its not just 300, it is 300 one time and never again for all your upgrades, system changes, and updates. Yes 300 as it is today ehh. Glad I got the 99 deal. But a year from now. It would have paid for it self just in the time it takes to tinker in truenas to fix and add things for me.
This is a cashgrab with future subscription grab, theres no other explanation for it, they made it online only, and only after a backlash, said they gonna do the offline ui as well, which im pretty sure, linus or someone, said, its gonna be worse than the online only version, i had high hopes for this, but as soon as they revealed thier intentions, everything is clear and a big no for me.
Also, LTT's video about it, is just laughable, they just showed few cool things about it (yes it has few cool features, but id rather use casaos/zimaos for these cool few features and have it for free ), quickly said its still beta so not perfect blablabla, and thats it...
Hexos has stated they always were going to make a local dash board but they did not communicate it well and it was thought they never were. But it was on the road map, they just moved it up.
And second for the cash grap part, truenas is also invested financially into hexos. They are partners as listed on truenas site. So even truenas them self have a leg in this race. Not so sure this will be a cash grab.
Good video but wow what a joke of an 'OS'
meh no thanks
This is terrible, especially with the pricing, most of the turn key nas solutions are just as simple to use, synology for example, much better to put that $300 towards something like that, i can't see hexos lasting once they run out of investor money.
Synology is not nearly as easy to use from a user aspect. One place to create a user and folder. You can easily select who has access to what from the same location. And on top of that, you can only upgrade synology ram at best. Hexos can be on way stronger hardware.
Paying $299 for what is essentially a skin over TrueNAS feels like a ripoff. Instead, consider donating to FreeBSD, investing in unRAID, or putting that money toward additional hardware-it’ll provide far more value
If you’re not able to take the couple of hours to learn about how to set up truenas, then by all means… I still mean it’s way overpriced and the online only portal is a gaping security hole. won’t touch it
lol I feel like it's more like a lifetime not a couple of hours. TrueNAS documentation imo is an absolute joke. But I also believe that tech people are absolutely the WORST people to make documentation. They make it for people who already know how to use it, not for people who are new, or want to learn. As a developer and someone who's written guides at work I understand how bad they are. It's why Interns are the best to go to so someone can tell you "I don't understand any of this." I love me a good intern.
Well lets be fair, its a couple hourse this month, then a year from now you update or all new folders and have to relearn, then you update and new permission standards for the zfs pool becuase you not only updated truenas but the zfs version and things do not work how they did a year ago so you need to relearn it again. Time is money. And 300 for a one time payment is perfect for me where i do not want to do my job at home.
I get why this would be an easy way into the world of NAS, but portraiting it like you need to learn a completely different way of setting up your storage with every version of truenas is not my idea of being fair. Each to their own i guess, if you want to pay $300 for a potentially huge security hole, by all means…