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https://docs.hexos.com/blog/2026-04-02.html

I'm out of town right now but let me just state that I totally get the folks that are upset. Honestly, writing blogs is pretty stressful for me as we constantly are working on moving targets and I stress over communicating about things that are still in flux and getting the words right. Tbh, I stress over comms in general. It's nerve wrecking. It's why I am earmarking funds this year to bring someone in to handle this for us. I just didn't want to spend any money on non dev/support resources until we got to 1.0. Again, I get it and I am not gonna make any excuses for it, so if you want to be mad, please direct that anger at me, not my team. They are busting their butts to get this thing polished and rolled out.

We've added everyone from our list. We'll start to migrate people based on the order of purchase to local UI.

Just my 2 cents, but for me buddy backup is more important, since I have 2 Hexos servers and I can be my very own buddy and I'm not planning on every using a cloud service as storage (smartphone stuff doesn't count, you don't really have much of a choice there 😉 ) Additional Buddy Backup was one of the promoted features and there have been quite a few people asking about it since the initial release of the beta. Cloud backup on the other hand was not really promoted and as @Todd Miller mentioned there were far less requests for it so far. Therefore likely why they prioritised Buddy Backup over cloud storage. So from a commercial point of view Buddy Backup is a stronger selling point that sets Hexos appart from other NAS solutions. I'm not saying that cloud storage support should not be done, but at least this (forum) part of the community is currently more interested in buddy backup.

I did say BY end of April ;-). Truth is we have been pretty much right there aside from a few issues, but the big one was the availability of HexOS Local. But we decided yesterday that we can still call this 1.0 and roll out Local to everyone over time. The local project has to be rolled out more slowly as we have SSL cert issuance limits right now.

Likely unpopular opinion, but thank you!

unfortunately, hexos just isnt for me. I have sent an email requesting a refund for my order to support@hexos.com, as per the suggestion of a form member, but i see people posting refund requests on here. so i am unsure of the correct process.

Hi everyone, I’ve been thinking about the roadmap lately and I’m a bit confused by the focus on Buddy Backup over "standard" Cloud Backup (Backblaze B2, S3, etc.) with proper snapshot management. I get that Buddy Backup is the "cool" feature that makes HexOS different from every other NAS OS out there, but I’m struggling to see the logic in prioritizing it right now. HexOS is still brand new, and the user base is obviously still small. Most of us don't actually have "buddies" running HexOS yet, so for the average user today, that feature isn't very useful yet. On the other hand, almost everyone needs a reliable way to get their data off-site to a professional provider immediately. Having a solid, classic cloud backup integration feels like a "must-have" for any NAS, whereas Buddy Backup feels like something that becomes great once the community is much larger. I feel like the majority of us would get way more value out of a standard cloud backup feature in the short term even if I agree that buddy backup is the way to go mid-long term. Am I the only one who feels this way? I’d love to hear what you guys think—maybe I’m missing something about why this is being pushed so hard early on ? Big shoutout to the dev team, congrats for 1.0 and keep up the great work !

I think buddy backup priority makes sense since that'd be a major differentiator for hexos compared to other NAS options (including truenas). Although tbh I don't have the hardware (especially the harddrives) for a second server so I'm not likely to use it until a future upgrade after the AIpocalyse ends. I've got Proton drive and just wish they get on with a linux client. Or Hexos VMs release and I can then run a windows VM with proton drive to backup critical docs and pictures.

I bought my license the day it became available but I've been waiting on this release to install. My server has just been sitting in the rack waiting. Excited to finally try it out, hopefully the download becomes available soon.

I get that, but I think a NAS is about much more than just avoiding the cloud. For me, it's about performance and local services that a cloud-only setup can't handle. I need local storage for things like editing video files directly off the NAS, running Home Assistant, storing security camera footage, and using Cloudflare Zero Trust to access my setup remotely. That said, I still need a 'Plan B' for my most critical data (like 300GB of Immich and Nextcloud files). This is where the Buddy Backup/VM argument doesn't really work for me. At $6/TB on Backblaze B2, my offsite backup costs next to nothing. Renting a VM with enough storage to act as a Buddy node would be significantly more expensive, plus you have to factor in the additional HexOS license and the time spent managing the VM. To me, standard Cloud Backup is just the cheapest and most reliable way to protect important data. It’s also arguably more secure and durable than a friend's house or a DIY VM. But I know we all have a different usage for our NAS, so I'm curious to see how others are planning to handle this.

I think the reasoning is, if you're paying for cloud storage and happy with it, then you probably wouldn't bother with a NAS. Realistically, cloud alone is probably enough for most people. So I think they are targeting people who want to own their own data, so "buddy" back up is probably the easiest. Marketing aside, it's really just a 2nd license to HexOS you need, the hardware and off-site could be a VM in the cloud if you wanted.

https://docs.hexos.com/blog/2026-04-02.html

I appreciate the understanding. I'm actually in the process of approving the post right now. Had a full day packed so it had to wait until tonight.

I can say ALL of my NAS builds have been done with Used drives from ebay and other retailers. I have had a small batch os issues but were dealing with drives that had a LARGE amount of time on them. if you are expanding and want to keep price down used could be a great alternative for you

I am a purple and gold guy

I got this working by doing a manual install of the docker compose file found here: https://docs.coolercontrol.org/installation/docker.html To manually install it, in TrueNAS go to Apps, Discover Apps, then click the three dots in the top right corner and load Yaml. You can leave the compose as is and it will work. You need to follow the guide below to setup the hardware for it. Specifically for TrueNAS that is running this command in shell and following the prompts: sudo sensors-detect To setup everything prior to that follow the guide here: https://docs.coolercontrol.org/hardware-support.html

The nuance I see is: Guesstimate for initial release, end of 2025. Oh shit, people want a local UI? Guess that's fair but that's a tone of extra work... but here's hoping... (I like many assumed the local UI was a part of the original plan) End of 2025: So it turns out the local UI was a tone of extra work, but we have a better guesstimate, Q1 2026. 1 Week before the end of Q1: Ok beta-beta release, If this goes flawlessly we might just make it... End of Q1: So transitioning X all at once is a massive migration that you can't really test for that well, so we'll have to do it gradually so we can cater for the inevitable fallout. Maybe we can do that over a month? Obviously I'm completely guessing (see, lack of communication) and could be completely wrong, but the general rule I've seen is go off the magnitude of the guesstimate, the longer the period the less accurate it is.

So just to be clear... The initial deadline (end of 2025) got delayed. The self imposed new deadline (Q1 2026) got delayed. The blog post about the delay got delayed (and still not out). The extent of the communication in the meantime on they delay is a random comment buried in a random forum thread. Radio silence on the official comms (reddit, twitter, newsletter). Hard to see how that could be considered acceptable / consistent / reliable. What's the level of goodwill here to assure that even end of April release will be met? The track record so far now is the opposite - the self imposed deadline means nothing.

The people saying everything is fine have got to be software developers who see this only from one perspective. Hate to break it to them, most people we'd expect soon to pay full license fee to keep the project going aren't, and those are exactly the potential customers we'd lose with this laid back mindset to weak areas of this project. Those won't be beta expectations anymore and there will be a lot to prove to doubters of this project to justify the price. Imho plex & immich was genuinely exciting to watch grow naturally, and backing them early felt like a bargain especially towards stable launch. Was it perfect? No, there were delays too. But none I recall having such communication meltdowns close to stable release. I'll be honest, some of the responses here concern me as much as the delays and comm issues themselves. Some say I knew it's part of the process "when I read Q1 2026 I think Q3 2026" maybe, but not this far into this beta with no updated written delay comms. Others react confused when I try to hold the team to their own deadlines. 'I'm glad they're not communicating, that means time is much better spent on making the software...' really? Good teams do both and I'm not asking for daily extensive blog posts of what and why went wrong, just a sentence update across all hexos communication channels setting new expectations. I recall people on this very forum calling out poor communication back in July and October, and the team acknowledging it and promising to improve. Yet here we are. Traveling or not, I still don't understand how the whole team forgot the most anticipated day of their own project, or couldn't break the news of a delay at least the night before. Now whether April Fools or not, yesterday would've been the first day after stable launch with customers paying $300 for a license, needless to say the most expensive nas os on the market. At this point, if the team still offers a refund option, I'd happily take it.. this just isn't for me anymore

Well @vogam7did you get what you wanted? If you have read these forums there are more than enough accusations of terrible or completely lacking communication. I have been jousting with this windmill since shortly after the initial deployment. I've even talked about to many methods of communication that left each incomplete. I got a similar response it would be looked into. and I can say this was the only answer you could have expected. They are probably still a small team primarily of coders. There had been talk months ago of no marketing team, no support team, and only initial talks of ongoing funding. If we are thinking this communication level is the biggest issue we are going to face before this project stabilizes, we are seriously kidding ourselves. That LTT video is more of a curse than blessing because this project isn't ready for that kind of attention. This team isn't going to acknowledge they are having trouble. They just won't say anything, again. And there is nothing any of the paying beta customers can do about it. Watch and wait or don't watch, what's the difference now. It's to late to change the approach the team took, even if they have found that. And there is now reason to assume that's true. Did they take the right path to this development? Did they build the right team with the right leadership? Well, if you have a better plan then share it. If you don't like this approach how would you fix it? Communication alone means very little. Missing deadlines is a much bigger deal that not mentioning there are problems. And honestly, do you think this would be simple and smooth? Yeah right.

Another month, huh? The least you could do is respect the people waiting with some communication ahead of time. Instead it's silence all day on release day and a last-minute delay notice as if it wasn't clear days ago this could happen. You created this self-imposed deadline,, nobody forced it. A delay with advance communication - fine. But the silence until 9 PM? That's just pure disrespect

Wow, Communication is a headache? That's a laugh. Well it looks like you have come to the right place. You only get very filtered communication when things are going really good here. And for anyone who actually was a developer you already know communication is critical. A lack of communication leaves you with a forum like this. Dozens of questions that get ignored. When did communication and coding become mutually exclusive? Right now the only people talking positive about HexOS are a few folks that depend on this product for their livelihood. Fortunately most people seem to not care or never took anything said up to this that serious. And looking at how many issues there still are unanswered in the forums and the length some of those have been around. Some issues have been able to celebrate birthdays. And if you want something to think about, riddle me this. If communication is like this now when we are in "BETA" and there is still goodwill stemming all the way back to the LTT video, What will it be like when we have HexOS 1.* and the product is release to production. Do you think the communication will get better then? The entire team has made it easy to get down on this product/project but if your going to be honest with yourself you still see the possibilities that attracted you in the first place. If you love the product and you are honest with yourself you see the cracks and holes that give you an uneasy feeling. Everyone in the middle is pretty meh in that it will do what they need but maybe not what they want. And just off on the horizon is the real issue we have been dancing around. A perfect HexOS is still just a skin wrapped around parts of TrueNAS. It will never be more than that and no matter how hard you look you were never promised more than that. If you don't want to learn TrueNAS then welcome to a sturdy and easy to setup network attached storage appliance. As Immich has shown us multiple times, the application curation process was just to make the initial install easier and more standardized. It is not to make Immich work or eliminate code product issues and design changes. What kind of communication do you expect when a new release of an app or perhaps TrueNAS itself wants to change something fundamental like their storage or security models. And from who? It's probably time we stop worrying about when production version 1.0 is coming and start trying to figure out what we are willing to do to make it work. Learn TrueNAS? Buy new hardware? Buy consulting services? Cut your losses and find something else? Regardless of all the rest , it seems you can't count on communication or timelines here. If you can't live with that no matter what you thought in your mind this journey would be, well sorry because this is just the start.

I'll just say what many are thinking here.. you're launching a hexos local beta just 9 days before the promised stable release date. How could this be included in 1.0 and called stable in under a week of testing? Refunds seem to be the go-to response for anyone who expresses frustration in other threads.. but that's beside the point for those of us who actually want this project to succeed. Missed deadlines are frustrating enough, but the communication issues that still keep coming up alongside them make it worse.. and for a project that depends on people investing in hardware, that trust matters. Server memory and now drives have nearly doubled since the originally promised end of 2025 release date. Every delay has a cost beyond just frustration. A straight timeline update would go a long way. I don't think you meant it this way, but the timing of this post is pretty telling... are we in for another delay?

At this point, just using HexOS to create folders, users, install apps, etc. just like normal. Use it both locally and remotely. That's really it. At this point, the main thing we're testing is that it works correctly, navigating you to the local interface when on LAN, and giving you remote access via the deck when away. If you can break your system (non-critical data only), there are a few specific cases we would like to see users test like destroying the pool used by apps (Docker) manually via TrueNAS, then renavigate to deck.hexos.com to see if you can remediate the issue. Obviously not asking anyone with real data on their systems to do this, but for those that have test setups, just beat the heck out it and see what breaks. We test internally pretty rigorously, but there's always edge cases that we can miss and this is the chance to find those as best we can.