Updating OS to something modern

The NVX, being the first Intel based ReadyNAS and designed by Infrant prior to the Netgear purchase, may not be as solidly locked down.  It may use a more generic BIOS than later models.  I've never tried to access it's bios (though I have two in storage).  But the fact that the NVX has a 32-bit processor is going to be a bigger hurdle.  TrueNAS has been 64-bit only for a number of years, as have most potential alternatives.

Given the state of Netgear support for the ReadyNAS, the ability to go back to the original OS shouldn't be much of a driver today.  So, IMHO, the best solution for units that are "locked down" is to do exactly as Netgear does -- put a boot loader and small OS in flash (or use UBoot for ARM systems) that chain-loads the real OS.  Of course, you wouldn't need (or likely even want) to have an image of the "real" OS in flash like Netgear does since it would likely get too big.

I would love to see a group start a project for a ReadyNASOS replacement.  Not being much of a programmer or even an expert on the inner workings of Linux, my contribution could be that I have a lot of machines on which to test (unless I sell them first).  IMHO, such a project should try to come as close to "for dummies" as possible for the actual conversion and not require a display.  For example, use the Netgear USB recovery system to write the flash and put into that flash options to boot normally from the drives (which would be the default) or to copy an OS from a USB drive (which might be on the same USB as the recovery system or on a separate one) to the drives.

In his farewell, WhoCares_ mentioned the possibility of such a project, and I think he'd be a great one to lead it.  Unfortunately, he seems to have simply given up on the ReadyNAS.