Is it worth to wait for Raidiator v5 for x86-Readynas?
Dear all,
can anyone answer the question it if is worth wait for the new Radiator v5 for x86?
v4.2.20 is under development since september 2011 - half a year! The enhancements in every new release seem to be small and there is not a lot of progress to see.
Is it reasonable to expect a v5 for x86 in the course of 2012 or better not?
Re: Is it worth to wait for Raidiator v5 for x86-Readynas?
minor1019 wrote:
can anyone answer the question it if is worth wait for the new Radiator v5 for x86?
My answer would definitely be yes. These things take time. A redesigned web-interface isn't written overnight. To maintain the feature set lots of things have to be written, a lot more than what was written for the new Duo/NV+ v2 ARM devices.
minor1019 wrote:
v4.2.20 is under development since september 2011 - half a year! The enhancements in every new release seem to be small and there is not a lot of progress to see.
Admittedly that was back in April last year but there have been some nice improvements since then such as Mac OS X Lion support. Not every update needs to be a major update. Remember there are many ReadyNAS users who use these in business environments. Reliability and maintenance of existing features are key. Change too much too quickly and you end up with something quite buggy and a poor experience.
4.2.20 in some ways is perhaps also not a major update but it does have some nice improvements in it still. If they are moving towards a RAIDiator 5 release they would want the last few RAIDiator 4.2.x releases or so to be especially well done which would perhaps account for the lengthy period of the 4.2.20 beta. There was the slip of a possible RAIDiator Enterprise 5.0.0 firmware recently (http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=61670) though the page referenced has since been removed. This suggests that a major firmware update is likely in development.
minor1019 wrote:
Is it reasonable to expect a v5 for x86 in the course of 2012 or better not?
Currently there is no ETA. Wouldn't be surprised to see it in the second half of this year sometime though we'll have to wait and see what the folks at NetGear come up with. They're not going to release such an update before it's ready and it would be likely that such an update would have a public beta period if it is to come to existing devices.
Minor updates are what one would expect if a major refresh of the UI is being planned. After all one would hardly expect lots of work to be done on the current UI adding new features etc. if a major refresh of the UI is planned. Rather one would think that releasing new features alongside the new UI would be the optimal time.
There's also the new ReadyDATA line which uses a very different OS again, but like the ARM products uses the new Dashboard user interface.
I would say things are looking a lot better for the prospects of a new UI coming to x86 than they were 6 months ago. Having said that it could still be quite a while off. There is no ETA at this time.
Re: Is it worth to wait for Raidiator v5 for x86-Readynas?
I am thinking of purchasing a NAS and I really need some advice. I really like the new feature set of 5.3.6 on the ARM products but am thinking the performance (and additional features) of the x86 NAS would be better. As claykin said above, I know Anandtech.com stated that Netgear states that this is coming to the x86 NAS feature set as well, but who knows, as I haven't seen anything official from Netgear eluding to that or not.
So, this brings me to the Pro 2. Newegg has a great deal and I can get the Pro 2 bundled with 2 2TB HDD's cheaper than the Ultra Plus 2 bundled with the same drives. I realize there are some added features on the Pro 2 model that the "prosumer" Ultra series does not have. What about the opposite though? Am I going to miss out any home features that might be more useful to me on the Ultra 2 Plus model that I wouldn't have available on the Pro model? How likely is the feature set of Raidiator 5.3.6 be implemented on the x86 NAS (as I really like those features that only seem available on the ARM models)? Is there any advantage (besides the Raidiator 5.3.6 feature set) over the x86 models?
As you can see, I'm confused! Right now, ultimately I am leaning towards the Ultra Plus 2 because of the added "home" feature set over the duo v2, but I feel like I am missing out on the Readydrop, Remote Time Machine and ReadyDLNA in Raidiator 5.3.6. How likely is it that these features are coming to the x86 models? Is there a better alternative to these features in the x86 models? Does the x86 models have many more add-ons? Or are the x86 models reaching the end of their lifecycle? If that is the case, what would be next? Should I just wait entirely? Or consider a different brand? But man that Pro model at a low price is tempting too, what would I be missing out on with the Pro model? Or should I just go way cheaper and get the duo v2?? <sigh>
Re: Is it worth to wait for Raidiator v5 for x86-Readynas?
The Pro 2 has a larger feature set than either the Ultra 2 Plus or the Duo v2. ReadyDROP is only available on the Duo/NV+ v2 (ARM) at this time.
There's a much greater range of add-ons available for the x86 models than ARM. There's also an alternative to ReadyDROP called OwnCloud available as a community add-on.
Re: Is it worth to wait for Raidiator v5 for x86-Readynas?
mdgm wrote:
The Pro 2 has a larger feature set than either the Ultra 2 Plus or the Duo v2. ReadyDROP is only available on the Duo/NV+ v2 (ARM) at this time.
There's a much greater range of add-ons available for the x86 models than ARM. There's also an alternative to ReadyDROP called OwnCloud available as a community add-on.
Re: Is it worth to wait for Raidiator v5 for x86-Readynas?
i would say no.. as an owner of 2x ultra4's , 1x nv+ v2 and 1x nv+, i'd have to say that radiator v4 is way better than v5.. v5 seems heavier ( slower to use ) , more messy in terms of placement of things you want to do and so on.. v4 is simpler and works much better imho..
Re: Is it worth to wait for Raidiator v5 for x86-Readynas?
The v4 Interface is aimed at your more technically-aware user IMHO. The v5 (Or what I've seen of it) looks like it's aimed more towards your novice user, who just wants to "Get-stuff-done" without worrying about the underlying mechanics. That's a reasonable assumption when you look at the feature set the Duo V2 and NV+ V2 debuted with.
OK it's a "Nicer-looking" interface than the old one. And that alone will probably sell more units. But people that are into computers (and tech in general) more than just on a superficial level tend to look at what the thing can do, not so much how it looks. And for this reason, I am not expecting V5 to appear on the x86 line for some time - if ever. But now i've gone and made such a sweeping statement, V5 will probably appear on x86 next week. So be prepared to thank me when it happens, all those who are waiting for it, lol.
Re: Is it worth to wait for Raidiator v5 for x86-Readynas?
gibxxi wrote:
The v5 (Or what I've seen of it) looks like it's aimed more towards your novice user, who just wants to "Get-stuff-done" without worrying about the underlying mechanics. That's a reasonable assumption when you look at the feature set the Duo V2 and NV+ V2 debuted with.
ReadyDATA line targeted at Enterprise uses the same v5 interface 😉
Re: Is it worth to wait for Raidiator v5 for x86-Readynas?
I would just like the v5 because it gets that ancient Debian version updated. So many packages I can't install properly due to missing (or outdated) libraries that are difficult to upgrade...
Re: Is it worth to wait for Raidiator v5 for x86-Readynas?
MueR wrote:
I would just like the v5 because it gets that ancient Debian version updated. So many packages I can't install properly due to missing (or outdated) libraries that are difficult to upgrade...
Exactly. That is my only complaint about 4.x. It is based on a very old linux distro that is no longer maintained. The latest Python available in the package manager is 2.4.4, which is over 6 years old. Perl is also several years out of date. The ReadyNAS is the only thing on my network that is always on so I'd like to run some lightweight background processes on it but I can't because so many components are too out of date.
I like the ReadyNAS for its physical attributes (compact, easy to get to drives, well cooled, quiet) but at this point I wish I could replace the OS entirely and just use it as any other linux box and configure all the services myself. I have not been able to find any info on doing this, I'm guessing there are some proprietary modules or kernel mods needed in order to boot another distro on it.
I see from earlier posts you have an Ultra 4. Replacing the OS would not only void the warranty it also wouldn't be practical on the Ultra 4 due to some BIOS restrictions. Your best option is to stick with 4.2.x for now and wait and see what happens in the future.
Thanks for the python update. I am probably going to just build my own NAS box from scratch soon. The biggest pain in the process is going to be moving the data as I would imagine I won't be able to migrate the disks, right?
Re: Is it worth to wait for Raidiator v5 for x86-Readynas?
I think the question is not "Is it worth waiting" but the question should be "How many people will go to Qnap or Synology after seeing this GUI?".
Offcourse most important is that the NAS works OK but some Eyecandy makes working with a lot friendlier. Even more important is that the present GUI not only looks ridically oldfashioned but is far from logical on many points.
I am new to Readynas but I am seriously thinking about going back to one of the other brands. Also I am sure that had there been a Live Demo (which most competitors have!) that then I would never have bought a Readynas.
But maybe that is the reason that Netgear did not enable the option of a Live Demo on the website?
