BSD Magazine FreeNAS special issue

[fluca1978]

Dear FreeNAS users and developers,
the free online magazine BSD Magazine is going to make an April 2013 issue entirely based on FreeNAS.
We are planning to have interviews and articles from the FreeNAS team members, as well as we would like to see guides, howtos, success stories and case studies from day-by-day users. Therefore we are looking for authors and contributors to spead the word of FreeNAS within this BSD magazine issue.
A really not complete list of topics could be:

- FreeNAS success stories and case studies (where you and/or your
colleagues have used FreeNAS and what advantages get from its
adoption)
- FreeNAS how-to (have you done a complex or specific setup or have
you enabled a not so common feature? e.g., link aggregation,mirroring,
replication, ...)
- FreeNAS hardware selection
- FreeNAS and backup (using FreeNAS to automate backup of servers and
workstations, making backups of your own FreeNAS instance, etc.)
- FreeNAS compared to other NAS based solutions (even not FreeBSD based) (it was originally FreeNAS against other Linux NAS distributions: advantages and drawbacks)
- FreeNAS plug-in development and contribution (have you deployed or
developed a specific feature tied to FreeNAS?)

and much more.
If you want to contribute to the BSD Magazine FreeNAS issue, please contact me via private message and I will provide further information.

 

[cyberjock]

A really not complete list of topics could be:

- FreeNAS against other Linux NAS distributions: advantages and drawbacks

You already failed. FreeNAS isn't Linux.. so comparing it against "other" Linux NAS distributions is.. impossible.

 

[fluca1978]

You already failed. FreeNAS isn't Linux.. so comparing it against "other" Linux NAS distributions is.. impossible.

I know, thanks, the idea is to compare FreeNAS against other Linux-based NAS distributions. I misphrased it, sorry.

 

[Stephens]

It's still confusing phrasing, though I'm sure he gets your point. Maybe just, "- FreeNAS against Linux-based NAS distributions: advantages and drawbacks"

"Other" in this context seems to imply FreeNAS is one Linux-based solution and you want to compare it to other Linux-based solutions.

It sounds like a really good article. I look forward to reading the finished product.

 

[cyberjock]

I just want to clarify that I was teasing you with the Linux comment. I made my comment because so many people actually think FreeBSD is a flavor of linux. If you took my comment as me jumping down your throat I ask for your forgiveness. I'm the king of this forum with thinking one thing and typing another myself.

 

[fluca1978]

There is no problem, I guess a more general FreeNAS compared to other NAS based solution (even not FreeBSD based) should fix.

 

[cyberjock]

There is no problem, I guess a more general FreeNAS compared to other NAS based solution (even not FreeBSD based) should fix.

If you really wanted a good comparison and I were in your shoes I would:

1. Put together a list of the NAS solutions you want to compare.
2. Read up on each to get an idea of what each has to offer.
3. Put together a questionnaire for all of the different solutions that includes questions that allow each NAS solution to tout the features that makes their superior to others(for instance.. FreeNAS is renowned for ZFS) and maybe include questions that also show potential limitations for new users(for instance, ZFS has limitations on its expandability.. you cannot smartly add a single disk to a zpool that uses redundancy).
4. Find 1 or 2 people from each of the projects that are knowledgeable enough to provide accurate and thorough answers and have them provide responses.
5. Put all this information together and include it in the article. Maybe even a short cheat-sheet chart that shows advantages and limitations of each.

All it would take on your part is to find those individuals, read up on each a little bit, put together questionnaires, then assemble the responses into the article. Not a lot of work, but well worth the effort for a magazine article. I have yet to see a very detailed and accurate comparison of NAS options, especially for home use. Every article I read seems to lean heavy on information for one solution(usually the one they say is the "best") and not provide much information on the others. I had no clue what I wanted, so I stuck with Windows Server 2008 R2 originally because I'm familiar with it and I already owned a license.

 

[ProtoSD]

If you really wanted a good comparison and I were in your shoes I would:

1. Put together a list of the NAS solutions you want to compare.
2. Read up on each to get an idea of what each has to offer.
3. Put together a questionnaire for all of the different solutions that includes questions that allow each NAS solution to tout the features that makes their superior to others(for instance.. FreeNAS is renowned for ZFS) and maybe include questions that also show potential limitations for new users(for instance, ZFS has limitations on its expandability.. you cannot smartly add a single disk to a zpool that uses redundancy).
4. Find 1 or 2 people from each of the projects that are knowledgeable enough to provide accurate and thorough answers and have them provide responses.
5. Put all this information together and include it in the article. Maybe even a short cheat-sheet chart that shows advantages and limitations of each.

All it would take on your part is to find those individuals, read up on each a little bit, put together questionnaires, then assemble the responses into the article. Not a lot of work, but well worth the effort for a magazine article. I have yet to see a very detailed and accurate comparison of NAS options, especially for home use. Every article I read seems to lean heavy on information for one solution(usually the one they say is the "best") and not provide much information on the others. I had no clue what I wanted, so I stuck with Windows Server 2008 R2 originally because I'm familiar with it and I already owned a license.

It sounds like a perfect project for you. :p

You should download an issue and take a look (its free).

 

[cyberjock]

It sounds like a perfect project for you. :p

You should download an issue and take a look (its free).

No thank you. While I'd have no problem filling out a questionnaire I'm plenty busy enough to not need another project to work on. :P

I would definitely read the article if it had a good thorough comparison of a handful of different NAS options.