the next BIG or small Thing...(Interface Redesign)

...okay i like the slim Look but, like in this Forum Be able to Change the colors would Be nice...

I wouldn't hold your breath.

Netgear has LONG been notorious for the "minimalist" nature of their GUI's, I've experienced this from my very first purchase (A DG814 ADSL router).

While it would be nice to see a sexy-looking AJAX style interface, personally i'd be more inclined to let them iron out the bugs in the underlying OS on the NAS products, and leave the GUI if that's what it takes.

Before my ReadyNAS Duo (and now Ultra 4) I was using a Maxtor Shared Storage II. It had a really nice interface... Sadly that's where the positive points about it ended. It was noisy, regularly overheated, and the dual drive models were notorious for having one of the drives fail and take the entire unit with it.

When the (cheap & nasty) 40mm fan died in the 500GB model i owned, I ripped it open, savlaged the drive for reuse, binned the rest and bought the Duo. I've never looked back since.

I rather agree with gibxxi, although I have not had an experiences with competing products, pro or con, once I set up my NV+ some 4 1/2 years ago, I don't think I used the interface for the next 2 1/2 years. Not until I started adding more drives did I use it. I have probably been in Frontview on my NAS units more in the last year or so, not because of setups on my units, but to answer questions. If you want notorious minimalist interfaces, try the BIOS on a Windows PC. But again, normally once you have the system set up, you don't need to be in it again.

Why spend resources making a fancy interface that most users will only access a few time in the normal life of the unit?

Why spend resources making a fancy interface that most users will only access a few time in the normal life of the unit?

I think you have to more clearly define "fancy" - does that mean just 'looks cool' or does it mean 'easier to use/more functional' ??

If the former, there is probably less value though you can't ignore what competition offers and we customers are fickle when it comes to decision making and choosing our purchases

If the latter then the answer to that question lies in the fact the the UI *is* the product to most new & inexperienced users. It's what they encounter when trying to use the unit for the very first time. It's what helps them form their first impressions of the product. It's what they struggle with before they can get their data onto the NAS and afterwards once their data in on their NAS and they are trying to setup a media server, or remote access or other functionality that is advertised as being oh so easy.

Consider all of the frustrated comments on this forum from new users who can't figure out how to setup their NAS. Frustration enough for some to return their NAS and buy something "simpler" despite many efforts to help.

Add to that that there are a lot of common issues Netgear could address with an easier to use UI - my favourite being the overly complex permissions control (OK - some documentation from Netgear would help too, but that's another topic)

A UI overhaul is long overdue in my opinion and to argue that Netgear should instead just focus on bug fixing and major feature additions (as so often argued whenever this topic is broached - just as @gibxxi does) is simply naive

There is a review of the NV+ v2 on Anandtech showing what looks like a completely redesigned FrontView...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5071/netg ... -v2-review
http://www.anandtech.com/Gallery/Album/1512#1

Sunday Afternoon wrote:
There is a review of the NV+ v2 on Anandtech showing what looks like a completely redesigned FrontView... http://www.anandtech.com/show/5071/netg ... -v2-review http://www.anandtech.com/Gallery/Album/1512#1

Interesting. Glad Netgear is keeping the lower end market going.

sphardy wrote:

Why spend resources making a fancy interface that most users will only access a few time in the normal life of the unit? I think you have to more clearly define "fancy" - does that mean just 'looks cool' or does it mean 'easier to use/more functional' ?? If the former, there is probably less value though you can't ignore what competition offers and we customers are fickle when it comes to decision making and choosing our purchases If the latter then the answer to that question lies in the fact the the UI *is* the product to most new & inexperienced users. It's what they encounter when trying to use the unit for the very first time. It's what helps them form their first impressions of the product. It's what they struggle with before they can get their data onto the NAS and afterwards once their data in on their NAS and they are trying to setup a media server, or remote access or other functionality that is advertised as being oh so easy. Consider all of the frustrated comments on this forum from new users who can't figure out how to setup their NAS. Frustration enough for some to return their NAS and buy something "simpler" despite many efforts to help. Add to that that there are a lot of common issues Netgear could address with an easier to use UI - my favourite being the overly complex permissions control (OK - some documentation from Netgear would help too, but that's another topic) A UI overhaul is long overdue in my opinion and to argue that Netgear should instead just focus on bug fixing and major feature additions (as so often argued whenever this topic is broached - just as @gibxxi does) is simply naive

I must admit, when a friend decided to buy a QNAP unit (Despite my reccomendation to get the ReadyNAS) I was somewhat jealous of the interface used in it. Everything looked well laid out and easy to configure. Unlike the ReadyNAS GUI that can at times be frustrating. File permisssions, as sphardy says, is one such area that can be totally mind-boggling for new users. I struggled to get my head round it at first, and i've been working with PC's for 15 years (albeit as a pure amateur).

On the subject of resource allocation, we simply don't (or I didn't at the time of writing my post above) know how much Netgear is willing to devote to programming a new GUI in terms of resources / staff. All businesses are feeling the pinch these days and I doubt Netgear are any exception, even if the Gartner report is to be taken at face value. The point I was trying to make from a simple end-user perspective, is that if resources HAD to come down on one side or another, i'd prefer stability over a new GUI. However, i'm not going to pass it up should it become available. Nor I doubt, would anyone else.

I saw the anandtech review, hence my return to this topic. I must say this looks promising, and for once am glad to be proven utterly wrong in my assumptions... Assuming the v5 firmware makes it to the existing hardware. Given Netgear's ongoing support for older NAS models, I don't see why this shouldn't be the case. And if so, finally they will be able to shake off the negative comments attributed to the software they put on their products.

New UI won't be coming to Sparc (e.g. Duo v1, NV+ v1). Will have to wait and see what happens with x86, no ETA at this time.

gibxxi wrote:
Assuming the v5 firmware makes it to the existing hardware. Given Netgear's ongoing support for older NAS models, I don't see why this shouldn't be the case.

I personally doubt that is a good assumption: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=58827#p331022

i think i allways have ideas that happen a year or two later at netgear... (Post subject: the next BIG or small Thing...(Interface Redesign)Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 4:50 pm)

just lucks nice http://www.anandtech.com/Gallery/Album/1512#1 and not to fancy.

Thanks and hope to have this more clearer and "graphical" nicer interface on my PRO :D soon....