Open Question to Netgear - What are Your Intentions?

So here is my impression getting into the world of NAS. I run a popular online site that deals with consumer issues including products. I was quite disappointed to find out that the two very recent NAS Ultra 2 devices I purchased at a nice discount were already apparently EOL. Worse, I didn't realize that I was getting the "non plus" version which has the exact same model number but half the horsepower. I've looked at the box and cannot find any way to differentiate between whether you have a single or dual core atom processor inside. This is beyond confusing to consumers and was one of the first reasons I began to suspect that getting a Netgear product might not be what I had expected in the past.

During setup of my first system, I saw the dreaded corruption error in RAIDar. If you've never set up an NAS before, Netgear's instructions certainly seemed designed to wishing you'd never have made that purchase. Other than using a search engine to figure out how other users set up their systems, there is no easy "how to" guide that would make it a simpler process to accomplish the common tasks one might expect. While I have seen the knowledgebase online help with regard to things like TIVO, failing to have documentation with the device is ridiculous and I still don't see the instructions generously provided by users included anywhere. Looking at Netgear's system supporting ReadyNAS is pretty sad. I see several broken links, sparse tutorials and an add-ons area that doesn't allow ratings or reviews or comments about the add-ons.

I'm still new here so it's possible I have overlooked quite a number of things. But I am not a newbie with regard to system set up, I build my own computers, manage Internet servers and more. If the process for me is a challenge it makes me wonder why anyone but sophisticated users would want to purchase a Netgear NAS. The more I read comments the more I think that having gone towards competing products by companies I was never before familiar might have been a much better route and saved me a ridiculous amount of time. At this point I'll need to evaluate what to do because I'm unfortunately beyond the point of return. But I can say that I will not hesitate to share my frustration with others and I wonder whether dumping new products on the market will matter if customer reviews will be brutal - my model's ratings have gone down and I won't hesitate to share my frustration with setup with others.