a 3rd architecture? seriously?

maxblack wrote:
TeknoJnky wrote: The duo/nv+ should have been discontinued as soon as the ultra lines were released... Sure, but it's cheap to build, and (as evidenced here) they DON'T support it anymore so aren't spending anything there either.

Duo and NV+ v1 are still supported. They recently received a firmware update 4.1.8 (http://www.readynas.com/RAIDiator_4_1_8_Notes) adding Mac OS X Lion support. It's just there's a limit to what they can do with it. I would expect there will still be more firmware updates to come, likewise focused on maintaining existing features. New purchases of the v1 still carry a 3 year warranty and qualify for support like they did before. There's also still plenty of help available on the forum.

TeknoJnky wrote:
Awesome! Can't wait for the dozens of future threads on how to migrate from duo2/nv+2 to ultra/pro!

It's an unfortunate problem, but there's nothing that can be done about that. I do hope NetGear takes some steps to make the migration as smooth a process as possible. Having said that one wouldn't expect people to do such a migration for a little while yet.

TeknoJnky wrote:
Sure but none of that will change the fact that development resources are now split across 3 architectures, assuming this is not the death blow to sparc devel. And while I'm sure we all expect sparc support to stop eventually, it still leaves resources split between ARM/x86.

There are similarities between RAIDiator for all 3 architectures so for a lot of problems fixing it one platform will make it relatively easy to fix on the rest. The fact that RAIDiator 5 isn't coming to Sparc and Photos II couldn't be ported to it, not to mention the recent infrequency of firmware updates, are indications that development for Sparc has been slowing down.

TeknoJnky wrote:
Well no doubt they will sell a ton at those prices, and then eventually we will hear all the complaints about how crippled they are compared to the other devices and not directly migratable to x86 devices or compatible with x86 addons.

Well you can't have everything. You can't expect to get the features of say a $1000 product when you pay $200. The Duo v2 and NV+ v2 provide good value for money and are not targeted at advanced users like yourself (or me).

TeknoJnky wrote:
/pity the addon devs having yet another arch to support (or not support).

Actually from what I remember speaking to WhoCares? I think he's quite excited about the opportunity of developing addons for ARM and wasn't surprised that NetGear's chosen to release devices on the platform.

TeknoJnky wrote:
But then again, maybe we are wrong thinking that x86 is the future, perhaps ARM will take over all the high end devices as well..

We'll have to wait and see. ARM is a simple design, energy efficient and reliable and much cheaper than Intel. Established architectures have died in the past, being undercut by cheaper alternatives, so it could happen again, but that doesn't mean it will.