HexOS true local

[D3I5]

Hi everyone,

I was reading the post about the upcoming local GUI, when a question came to my mind.

Will there ever be a "true local" solution in the future, that does not depend on HexOS' Servers at all? I am quite concerned about this, because as long as a connection to offsite infrastructure is needed I will not be able to redo my HexOS install if said infrastructure is out off order. Which is not unlikely to happen one day.

Same goes for the buddy backup, will there be a way to establish a peer to peer connection without relying on HexOS' servers?

I really like the idea of HexOS but once I bought a license and downloaded my ISO I would prefer to be independent from you, if I want to.

Regards,

D3I5

[G-M0N3Y-2503]

I believe they have confirmed that HexOS will be able to be used completely offline.
If I recall correctly, Offline activation may not be supported and for buddy backup a method will be possible, but the setup may not be as easy/convenient.
Lastly I believe it's undecided if outbound connections can be disabled like the deck outside of air gaping the system. 

[D3I5]

13 minutes ago, G-M0N3Y-2503 said:

If I recall correctly, Offline activation may not be supported

I read that too :( I hope they change their mind about that. If HexOS gets sold in a few years and the buyer decides to shutdown the activation service (which is not unlikely) we are cooked.

22 minutes ago, G-M0N3Y-2503 said:

 for buddy backup a method will be possible, but the setup may not be as easy/convenient.

I wouldn't mind a more complex solution as an option for tech savvy customers. A simple open source "connection broker" running on docker would be great, don't you think?

[Cantos]

I assume the online activation is there because HexOS is a commercial product.

Shutting down activation would really only make sense with the shut down of Eshtek as a company (or the end of development and sale of HexOS). I think it is very likely that if that ever happens they will remove the activation requirement before shutting down deck.hexos.com.

And even if they decided, for some bizarre reason, to brick HexOS, the underlying TrueNAS SCALE would still work just like it does now, so nobody would be truly cooked anyway.

[PsychoWards]

Truenas itself already offers a lot of possibilities, you have the standard rsync which you can use to backup to virtually any other type of NAS and you have the replication task which you can use to backup to another truenas/hexos server. 

If you're looking for options for more tech savvy users, truenas already offers them, there is no need to wait for Hexos to implement them. 🙂 

[D3I5]

2 hours ago, Cantos said:

I assume the online activation is there because HexOS is a commercial product.

Shutting down activation would really only make sense with the shut down of Eshtek as a company (or the end of development and sale of HexOS). I think it is very likely that if that ever happens they will remove the activation requirement before shutting down deck.hexos.com.

And even if they decided, for some bizarre reason, to brick HexOS, the underlying TrueNAS SCALE would still work just like it does now, so nobody would be truly cooked anyway.

As we have seen in the past with countless IOT devices, buying something that requires third party closed-source infrastructure to function is likely to be bricked one day.
One day Google might come around with big-tech-money, buy Eshtek to own a small part of the tech stack or a license or something and abandon everything else ...

Yes, thanks to trueNAS my data could probably be restored, but I still payed at least 600€ (2 licenses) for a then dead service that I would have liked to continue to use. This would only take effect if it comes to a reinstall but it will happen eventually.

Don't get me wrong, the fact that its a one time purchase is great, but it could be even better.

 

2 hours ago, PsychoWards said:

Truenas itself already offers a lot of possibilities, you have the standard rsync which you can use to backup to virtually any other type of NAS and you have the replication task which you can use to backup to another truenas/hexos server. 

If you're looking for options for more tech savvy users, truenas already offers them, there is no need to wait for Hexos to implement them. 🙂 

You are right, I forgot about the option to tinker with the underlying trueNAS. Thanks for the reminder :D

Edited 3 hours ago by D3I5
spelling

[Cantos]

1 hour ago, D3I5 said:

As we have seen in the past with countless IOT devices, buying something that requires third party closed-source infrastructure to function is likely to be bricked one day.
One day Google might come around with big-tech-money, buy Eshtek to own a small part of the tech stack or a license or something and abandon everything else ...

I am well aware, but the abandonment is not the issue. Your 600 eurodollars does not guarantee the perpetual existence of Eshtek. There are many ways HexOS could go south and no big tech with big money need be involved at all.

The key thing is how HexOS is abandoned. And even Google is capable of gracefully shutting down services like Stadia, where everyone got a refund and the controller got Bluetooth mode instead of turning into e-waste. HexOS is not guaranteed to become useless just because it has online activation right now.

1 hour ago, D3I5 said:

thanks to trueNAS my data could probably be restored

Probably? Isn't it definitely? The data is in a ZFS pool that you should be able to import into TrueNAS, no?

[Todd Miller]

Are we really talking about the "failure" of HexOS before we even go live?  I got told off when I brought up this possibility several months ago and I was just talking about having backups.  Can we at least wait until either Eshtek sounds a warning of some critical issue, Eshtek misses a checkpoint established for a specific date or they go even more silent?