RealNAS—A FreeBSD-native management layer for ZFS storage.

[CiotBSD]

RealNAS is a FreeBSD package set that adds NAS management to a stock system. It installs a middleware daemon, an Angular WebUI, and a small HTTPS reverse proxy for ZFS pools, datasets, snapshots, SMB and NFS shares, local users, alerts, reporting, updates, and boot environments.

• https://realnas.io/

[thenextguy@lemmy.world]

As mentioned elsewhere, this seems suspicious. No source available anywhere.

[CiotBSD]

Although I agree that there are some worrying signs...
The BSD licence does not require the author to make the source code of their project available; it permits redistribution and requires the inclusion of a copyright notice and a disclaimer.

It is for the sake of convenience that almost all projects under FLOSS licences make their source code publicly available – an effort towards transparency; however, this is not a requirement under BSD licences – the GPL mandates it, but the BSD licences do not.

The fact that the WebUI looks almost exactly like TrueNAS’s – it’s clearly a case of copy and paste – could certainly be a worrying sign…

TrueNAS WebUI:

RealNAS WebUI:

But then again, as it’s the same web technology, it’s certainly to be expected that they look similar.

Finally, this project ‘gives to Caesar what belongs to Caesar’ with regard to the legal aspects.

---

So, yes, the approach isn’t ‘conventional’, and some aspects are troubling, but is that really enough to publicly cry ‘wolf’ and cast doubt, without any real conviction, let alone a serious analysis of the project?!
I doubt it.

NB: I am not the author of the project; I know no things about the person or people behind it, and have no connection – either direct or indirect – with… I am simply calling for a little more restraint in what is said, and less suspicion – which is becoming the norm due to many factors (IA, liers, malice, ...) that are just as troubling, if not more so, than the significance of this project.