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Forum Discussion
Latest Generation ReadyNAS
I just received notification that my current ReadyNAS is end of life (last OS update). This is the second device that I have had that made it to End Of Support. What is the latest model and what...
What the hell?
Can you elaborate on this end-of-life notice? I know most companies eventually drop support for older models because it's just too much work to keep up with them, but NAS units can keep on chugging along for a decade or more. At their most basic level, the funciton they provide doesn't change a lot. If that's all you need a NAS for, you might never want to upgrade.
I'm dissappointed in this end-of-life notice because, eventhough the newest featureset may not arrive on legacy ReadyNAS models, I think Netgear should always keep patching legacy devics for vulnerabilities. Imagine if Windows 7 stopped getting security updates because Windows 10 came out. That will happen, eventually, but the timeline is a lot more reasonable than just a few years. Right now Windows 7 is slated to be retired in 2020 (5 more years), but that's after already giving many users 7+ years of use. That's a good return on investment for a customer. These NAS devices are network attached, afterall. If they don't want to (or can't, for hardware reasons) bring them up to speed on features, that's no problem. But I expect patches for a very long time on a product designed to network.
If my ReadyNAS unit drops support too early I will replace my end-of-life RN with a competitor's product. Very satisfied so far, but no patches = no customer.
Microsoft's business model (and scale) is of course very different. Though their decision to migrate Win7 to Win10 is something I wish Netgear had done with OS 4.2 -> OS 6. You can of course migrate yourself if you ok with losing support.
Netgear's explanation is here: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/189/~/eol----end-of-life-explanation
Despite their stated policy, in the past they have provided security updates and minor bug fixes for ReadyNAS long after EOL. From my point of view, that makes a lot of sense since these units are very different from their mainstream routers and switches.
Here is the notice that I received.
Dear ReadyNAS® Customer,
We want to thank you for being a loyal customer and would like to notify you of a firmware update, V4.2.28, for your ReadyNAS. You can download it here.
The V4.2.28 firmware will be the last software release on all the select ReadyNAS products listed on the web page below, including yours, due to its end-of-life status.
http://www.netgear.com/landing/eol.aspx
As in most technology products, there is a natural life cycle. After a certain point, a product must be declared “end of life” due to its lack of market demand, or its aging technology being replaced by newer and more advanced ones.
You can continue to get support from other ReadyNAS customers and our experts at theReadyNAS community.
We invite you to review replacement products available to you on our website, offering higher performance, more functionality and improved user experience.
We invite you to visit our website and community and we look forward to hearing from you again.
Best Regards,
The ReadyNAS TeamI have had some time to think about this after my gut reaction of "Oh my lord!" What bothers me most about this is that they just hit bob with a notice. "We've decided we can no longer support this product, so be prepared for your final update." Seems like it just showed up one day. What makes Microsoft's EOL strategy so much better is that it's clear from the moment you buy the product what date support/updates will end.
I'm a recent ReadyNAS buyer and if I had access to a list of EOL information, I might not have bought the box I bought. I have no idea when it launched (I think it was about two years ago) and I have no idea when it will become unsupported. If I get a few years out of it, maybe it was worth it. It's difficult to make informed purchase decisions without all of the information, though. Unlike with other products where I may keep using it long after support ends as long as it works, I'm hesitant to try that when (1) the RN is networked and (2) the RN is full of precious data. Just my two cents.
If you know of an EOL date page, please send it along. It would be good to start planning ahead now. I couldn't find one when I made my purchase.
RAIDiator-x86 4.2.x firmware was first released back in 2008 with the launch of the ReadyNAS Pro over 7 years ago and the latest firmware for this model is 4.2.28.
With any product there comes a time when the updates stop. It's unfortunate that this has to happen and when any vendor makes such a decision there is understandable disappointment.
In 2013 we made a revolutionary change with new products with a new OS and a different filesystem. This is the kind of major change that would be made very rarely.
Our latest ReadyNAS products run the same OS as the products we released in 2013.
My unit is relatively new, so I'll be getting at least five more years out of it before it goes EOL if 7 years continues to be the norm moving forward. Still, though, my grievence remains. There is no list of anticipated EOL dates for the ReadyNAS product line. I have found Microsoft's transparency in this regard to be very helpful over the years. Publishing these projections would help consumers make better purchase decisions.
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