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[nm9p]

Now that the idea of installable aps has been proven with 1.08 beta, I would assume that is is possible to develop a very simple barebones firmware which would functon as the "traffic cop" and allow virtualy all of the rest of the functions to be farmed out as packages to downloadable applications which could be updated at will, as available, in parts or in one massive update. 

This would be Kind of what the funplug folks are already doing, but the advantage I see with the downladable aps is that they are fully integrated into the operating system and web-based control program.

This would also virtually eliminate any limitations due to the size of the memory onboard the DNS-323.
While some may not like the idea of taking up space on the disk drive with software rather than data, but what is a few Gigs compared to a 500Gb  or 1Tb drive?

Am I missing something? 

Ken - NM9P

[gunrunnerjohn]

Well, sticking any critical applications on the disk would be a problem if you format, change the drive, or simply remove the drive for some other reason.  I don't think that's a good plan.

Loadable applications that are in FLASH would be fine, and you could tailor your NAS to it's usage.  For instance, I don't use the AV Server, iTunes Server, or the Bittorrent capability.  If I could leave those out, that would save space for other things like a backup to a USB connected drive right on the DNS-323.

[fordem]

Well, sticking any critical applications on the disk would be a problem if you format, change the drive, or simply remove the drive for some other reason.  I don't think that's a good plan.

Loadable applications that are in FLASH would be fine, and you could tailor your NAS to it's usage.  For instance, I don't use the AV Server, iTunes Server, or the Bittorrent capability.  If I could leave those out, that would save space for other things like a backup to a USB connected drive right on the DNS-323.

The concept of a bootloader in flash memory (and before flash memory - ROM) retreiving the OS from a disk drive has been around as long as there have been hard disk drives.

It is time proven - just look at the millions of PCs sold since the advent of the IBM PC5160 in 1983 - and since this is the exact same concept used in the just released Windows 7, I don't think it'll be going away any time soon.

[gunrunnerjohn]

True, but the NAS isn't exactly like your computer.  It's not that it wouldn't work, but it raises the complexity of the system.  In any case, I really don't see them doing anything like this for the box.

[thebeck]

Perhaps we should look at it from a different perspective...  Take the iTunes server, for example...  It serves files from the hard drive.  Take the FTP server, for example...  It serves files from the hard drive.

Any 'application' that solely functions as a process that reads and writes disk information could become a candidate for being implemented as an add-on package instead of being packaged in the firmware.  gunrunnerjohn's comments about formatting or changing the drive become moot.

By taking this approach, space will be freed up for things like S.M.A.R.T. support, a more recent version of the linux kernal (ie. 2.6.12 is now really old), better and more tools, better and more drivers (e.g., USB), etc.

I vote for the add-on approach as much as possible thereby allowing the firmware to be as powerful as possible.  My $0.02.