I’ll start by saying I don’t think your experience here is atypical, but I wouldn’t necessarily contribute it to the HL8. This is more about the differing software philosophy behind Rocky Linux, Cockpit Project, and HoustonUI. I believe the general expectation from Cockpit (and by extension Houston which are 45Drive written cockpit modules) is that you will install what you need as you need it (samba, nfs, etc.) and avoid unused software on your computer that could pose security risks. I believe some of the cockpit modules check to see if the software is installed and will even give you an error but that doesn’t seem to be the norm in my experience.
Ultimately, what you’re going through is what drove me to choose TrueNAS for my HL15 and HL8 as I was looking for more an appliance experience that “just works”. I didn’t really want even need all the freedom I’d get with full fledged Linux Operating system like Rocky with a web front end via Cockpit/HoustonUI.
Hi Ryan, thanks for the comment. I agree with your sentiment to a point. I would expect, however, that if Houston UI has a SMB file sharing tab in the UI by default, that SMB functionality is installed by default. Maybe I read too much into the product as a complete NAS solution (especially SMB) out of the box - if so, that’s my mistake. I don’t mind installing extra features if needed but it seems that NAS features should be installed (if not enabled) by default. I’d like a comment by the HL8 product manager to set this straight about product expectations. Are these bugs (or oversights) on the release of the HL8/Houston UI or an error in my expectations for the product.
I can’t say these would be the choices I would make either in this situation but reasonable minds can certainly differ. I may also afford 45HomeLab a little too much leniency. I work in product management in the software/online space, and I understand all too well that there is a constant barrage of trade offs, time, and cost factors going into even the smallest decisions. 45HomeLab also comes from the enterprise space where this type of stuff is looked at very differently. I like that they are trying to serve the HomeLab space by leveraging their enterprise gear and expertise. It’s just a weird niche market that sits in between the enterprise and consumer business models. I’m confident they’ll figure out the sweet spot at some point where we get the best of both worlds. It’ll just take a little bit of time.