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On 21/01/2023 at 13:41, Steven P. said:

Sorry but when the changes make you less productive then it is not a user fault. Stop being an apologist for a megacorp that's out of touch and pushes bad ideas on end users that they ultimately are forced (at least in part) to backtrack on.

Makes you less productive because of ...?

Wow such hatred and fear here. This is a technology website too not an Oatmeal enthusiast site for Grandpas.

I don't get it. I hate Apple for good reason. I also hate Linux for other reasons and this is for use cases rather than the OS as a whole.

Really the changes between 10 vs 11 are minimal at best. I am not a win 11 fan ot either as I used both for awhile. There are things I like and dislike from both but nothing horrid or unusable or work flow issues or stability issues like I seen with other platforms that warrant such comments. SMH

People don't freak out when they buy a new car and it's different. How is your desktop different? I bought a new car recently and there things I like and do not like about it vs old one. At the end of the day that is life and it's just a tool to get to point A to point B. Same with Windows

Edited by sinetheo
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On 20/04/2023 at 12:05, sinetheo said:

Wow such hatred and fear here. This is a technology website too not an Oatmeal enthusiast site for Grandpas.

I don't get it. I hate Apple for good reason. I also hate Linux for other reasons and this is for use cases rather than the OS as a whole.

You complain about what you see as hate against W11/MS then tell us you hate Apple and Linux.

Then you ridicule the people who have left a comment.

Nice one.

On 20/04/2023 at 03:05, sinetheo said:

Wow such hatred and fear here. This is a technology website too not an Oatmeal enthusiast site for Grandpas.

I don't get it. I hate Apple for good reason. I also hate Linux for other reasons and this is for use cases rather than the OS as a whole.

Really the changes between 10 vs 11 are minimal at best. I am not a win 11 fan ot either as I used both for awhile. There are things I like and dislike from both but nothing horrid or unusable or work flow issues or stability issues like I seen with other platforms that warrant such comments. SMH

People don't freak out when they buy a new car and it's different. How is your desktop different? I bought a new car recently and there things I like and do not like about it vs old one. At the end of the day that is life and it's just a tool to get to point A to point B. Same with Windows

The main problem with Windows 11 is that it is becoming or is an advertising platform for MS, also MS push their own stuff onto people far too much, look at search, it uses Bing and Edge, no way you can change that. windows is not much betetr.

I posted on this in January and I said then I did not mind Windows 11, in some ways I prefer it to Windows 10.  things have changed for me since then, I have now got myself a Mac mini m2 pro and compared to windows it is amazing, sure it is not perfect, there are things that annoy me, but i should have changed years ago.  But I was worried about what i have heard about it.

The difference between windows and Mac os is a lot, and I am surprised i have adapted so well to it. I still have the PC for a few games and in case I need to render two video clips at the same time. I mayt stick Windows 11 on it at some point. As you said, there is not a lot of difference between 10 and 11, apart from MKS trying to lock down Windows 11 more than Apple lock down Mac OS, which they don'

 

Why do you hate Mac Os and Linux?

Linux I like also.

You be surprised that some people do freak out about anew car, I know in the U.S Automatic cars are the thing, but most car in the UK have manual gear shifting, anyway my other half have been looking for a new car and is thinking of going for a hybrid, but the ones she has seen so far have automatic gears, and she hates that. There are other things on mdern cars she don't like, auto parking and sensors that slow the car down, she has a Land Rover, and she hates it as it keeps telling her how to drive and what gear she should be in.

 

 

  • Like 3
On 20/04/2023 at 02:36, ad47uk said:

The main problem with Windows 11 is that it is becoming or is an advertising platform for MS, also MS push their own stuff onto people far too much, look at search, it uses Bing and Edge, no way you can change that. windows is not much betetr.

I posted on this in January and I said then I did not mind Windows 11, in some ways I prefer it to Windows 10.  things have changed for me since then, I have now got myself a Mac mini m2 pro and compared to windows it is amazing, sure it is not perfect, there are things that annoy me, but i should have changed years ago.  But I was worried about what i have heard about it.

The difference between windows and Mac os is a lot, and I am surprised i have adapted so well to it. I still have the PC for a few games and in case I need to render two video clips at the same time. I mayt stick Windows 11 on it at some point. As you said, there is not a lot of difference between 10 and 11, apart from MKS trying to lock down Windows 11 more than Apple lock down Mac OS, which they don'

 

Why do you hate Mac Os and Linux?

Linux I like also.

You be surprised that some people do freak out about anew car, I know in the U.S Automatic cars are the thing, but most car in the UK have manual gear shifting, anyway my other half have been looking for a new car and is thinking of going for a hybrid, but the ones she has seen so far have automatic gears, and she hates that. There are other things on mdern cars she don't like, auto parking and sensors that slow the car down, she has a Land Rover, and she hates it as it keeps telling her how to drive and what gear she should be in.

 

 

CVT transmissions are the plague. They are unreliable, break down, and steal all life out of the vehicle hence why I bought a Mazda recently when my old ride hit the dust. BUt I did not freak over the wheel looked different or the style caused me OCD because it didn't look my old crappy Kia.  That is really what people hate about Windows 11. Your concerns about privacy have all been back ported to Windows 7 so it is just a popular talking about.

I said that I hate Linux too for certain uses. Not as a whole which I knew would trigger people. I will not use Linux as a desktop OS and 22 years later it still is not ready or mature as Windows XP was. I stand by my comment on that and I could go on pages and pages of technical reasons why it will never compete without a complete overhaul of it's userland programs and nasty glue that is called Xorg and the apis built on top of it. 

I hate Apple because I have to spend $3000 to get more than 1 monitor to function is the main reason. Yes my employer purchased a $2600 MacPro (PRO GRADE) and was told by Apple it was not good enough as that chip still didn't support DisplayLink. I got rid of it and got a cheap $900 Lenovo. Dual monitors at 1440P works with no displayLink weirdness. I refuse to be treated that way on principle. 

On 23/04/2023 at 00:06, sinetheo said:

I will not use Linux as a desktop OS and 22 years later it still is not ready or mature as Windows XP was. I stand by my comment on that and I could go on pages and pages of technical reasons why it will never compete without a complete overhaul of it's userland programs and nasty glue that is called Xorg and the apis built on top of it.

This is not true. Basically most popular distributions are miles better than windows 11 is. You saying this only shows that you haven tried Linux probably since the windows xp era. Proof of this is that there is some sort of windows 12 images circulating with a desktop which look too similar to gnome desktop.

On 23/04/2023 at 08:06, sinetheo said:

I will not use Linux as a desktop OS and 22 years later it still is not ready or mature as Windows XP was. I stand by my comment on that and I could go on pages and pages of technical reasons why it will never compete without a complete overhaul of it's userland programs and nasty glue that is called Xorg and the apis built on top of it.

Since this thread is about Windows 11, I would appreciate it if you could PM me your pages of technical reasons about how Linux is not as mature as Windows XP. I've been using Mint daily for the past few years and I don't see what I'm missing. In fact, it appears to be more stable than my Windows 10 installation at the moment. :laugh:

  • Like 3
On 23/04/2023 at 07:06, sinetheo said:

CVT transmissions are the plague. They are unreliable, break down, and steal all life out of the vehicle hence why I bought a Mazda recently when my old ride hit the dust. BUt I did not freak over the wheel looked different or the style caused me OCD because it didn't look my old crappy Kia.  That is really what people hate about Windows 11. Your concerns about privacy have all been back ported to Windows 7 so it is just a popular talking about.

I said that I hate Linux too for certain uses. Not as a whole which I knew would trigger people. I will not use Linux as a desktop OS and 22 years later it still is not ready or mature as Windows XP was. I stand by my comment on that and I could go on pages and pages of technical reasons why it will never compete without a complete overhaul of it's userland programs and nasty glue that is called Xorg and the apis built on top of it. 

I hate Apple because I have to spend $3000 to get more than 1 monitor to function is the main reason. Yes my employer purchased a $2600 MacPro (PRO GRADE) and was told by Apple it was not good enough as that chip still didn't support DisplayLink. I got rid of it and got a cheap $900 Lenovo. Dual monitors at 1440P works with no displayLink weirdness. I refuse to be treated that way on principle. 

I know things are different these days than when my father used to drive, but he never liked automatics either,  he thought the same as you, unreliable and also, used to using his left hand to change gears, but we are talking 35 years since he drove an automatic, sadly he has passed away now, but he drove right up into his 80's, he did not like small cars either.  I don't know anyone who get OCD about a car, but then I don't really know anyone who get OCD over an operating system, ok, maybe one. Most people I know can cope with different operating system, some may take a bit longer to get used to them.  I know I am a bit more technicle that a lot of people, but I came from Windows to Mac Os and i am coping ok, but then I also have used different Linux desktops.

I know a couple of people that use Linux, for music, video editing and even one that uses it for graphic design, sure it take a bit of getting used to and the software is not as polished , but if you are willing to put something into it, then it is amazing what you can do with Linux. Myself, I have Mint on a laptop that is used for basic stuff, I also have Mint on a second drive on my PC, but  again only for basic stuff,  i was going to use it instead of Windows, but I just don't have the patience these days.  That is why I went for a Mac, the software I use is available for the Mac and this Mac mini M2 pro is  pretty powerful, more so than my PC and uses less energy than my PC. To update my PcC, Io would have to get something like a Ryzen r9, which costs a pretty penny, would not really add that much to my PC and still use a load of energy compared to this Mac.

Not sure why it is costing $3000 to get more than one monitor to function. I suppose it depends on your Mac, but on this Mac mini, I have two monitors, one via the HDMI and one running of  USB to HDMI cable/.

Apple is not perfect and to be honest It has taken me a long time to change to a MAc, mainly because I have seen problems other people have had with older Macs, but looking at the specs of the Mac mini and what it can do, plus the size and no mucking around with it.. I thought it was a better thing to go for than update my PC

 

On 23/04/2023 at 02:52, Nick H. said:

Since this thread is about Windows 11, I would appreciate it if you could PM me your pages of technical reasons about how Linux is not as mature as Windows XP. I've been using Mint daily for the past few years and I don't see what I'm missing. In fact, it appears to be more stable than my Windows 10 installation at the moment. :laugh:

You asked for it you got it ... Xorg is a protocol with a 1980s architecture designed for Smart terminals and one big gigantic non networked mainframe which security was not a consideration. The gui stuff was added later. Things like font rasterization, graphics, and access to hardware and sound go through font servers and sound servers in a weird client/server combo on the same machine with terrible latency and bugs.

Meanwhile MacOSX and Windows Vista and later use hardware accelerated gui operations with a driver to interact with the hardware directly with postscript rendering for pixel perfect and RGB accurate representation. Windows went away from postscript with it's own format but it is based off the same principle. It is why Adobe Photoshop can't be ported to Xorg and desktop publishers who aren't color blind use Windows/MacOSX. Windows XP is more primptive but does have pixel RGB color accuracy and postscript pixel perfection so what you see on the screen represents exactly what is printed out. Because MacOSX/Windows has APIs built for an actual desktop not a protocol for terminals it has features built in like an action or notification center, taskbar features, etc. Linux has these baked in with all different implementations and each program has to support them. For example not every gui program supports Cinnamons features for notifications or Elementry's MacOS like styling and full integration. 

You don't need font servers, sound servers, and other weird arounds on any other platform and with WDDM and the Apple equilivent  (quartz I believe but I could be wrong) I have smooth scroll on my 165 hz 1440p panels and fluid video and no chops. On Mint you get a chop chop chop scrolling down or up which gave me OCD and was unusable. I also get 3d accelerated graphics outside of smooth scroll which Linux can't do because Xorg isn't designed for it. 

I tried Fedora Cinnamon last summer for the first time in 11 years and as soon as my pc fell asleep and woke back up my fonts in Firefox were garbled due to a bug in the display driver and or font server. Yep it was just as horrible as it was 11 years ago and nothing improved. I gave up a decade ago on Linux Fanboyism and decided to grow up as work needed to get done and Windows 7 was gorgeous

On 23/04/2023 at 15:26, sinetheo said:

You don't need font servers, sound servers, and other weird arounds on any other platform and with WDDM and the Apple equilivent  (quartz I believe but I could be wrong) I have smooth scroll on my 165 hz 1440p panels and fluid video and no chops. On Mint you get a chop chop chop scrolling down or up which gave me OCD and was unusable. I also get 3d accelerated graphics outside of smooth scroll which Linux can't do because Xorg isn't designed for it. 

I tried Fedora Cinnamon last summer for the first time in 11 years and as soon as my pc fell asleep and woke back up my fonts in Firefox were garbled due to a bug in the display driver and or font server. Yep it was just as horrible as it was 11 years ago and nothing improved. I gave up a decade ago on Linux Fanboyism and decided to grow up as work needed to get done and Windows 7 was gorgeous

What the hell are you talking about? I'm right now playing redout 2 and apex legends at 144 Hz with variable sync through display port in my 7900xtx and do not let me start with fonts and hw acceleration. Your experience is so limited that it is baffling.

image.thumb.png.c2bb7142468460de1aa54ad3ded951a0.png

On 23/04/2023 at 23:35, Arceles said:

What the hell are you talking about? I'm right now playing redout 2 and apex legends at 144 Hz with variable sync through display port in my 7900xtx and do not let me start with fonts and hw acceleration. Your experience is so limited that it is baffling.

image.thumb.png.c2bb7142468460de1aa54ad3ded951a0.png

It's not using Xorg. It has it's own framebuffer. X11 apps can't support hardware based font rendering or smooth scroll. There is no wddm gpu scheduling support. Your ignorance is what is showing as I used it 22 years ago and know a lot more on what I am talking about. The Linux fanboys do not other than tie their ego to a piece of software. Have fun with your buggs and choppy gui experience 

On 23/04/2023 at 14:26, sinetheo said:

You asked for it you got it ... Xorg is a protocol with a 1980s architecture designed for Smart terminals and one big gigantic non networked mainframe which security was not a consideration. The gui stuff was added later. Things like font rasterization, graphics, and access to hardware and sound go through font servers and sound servers in a weird client/server combo on the same machine with terrible latency and bugs.

Meanwhile MacOSX and Windows Vista and later use hardware accelerated gui operations with a driver to interact with the hardware directly with postscript rendering for pixel perfect and RGB accurate representation. Windows went away from postscript with it's own format but it is based off the same principle. It is why Adobe Photoshop can't be ported to Xorg and desktop publishers who aren't color blind use Windows/MacOSX. Windows XP is more primptive but does have pixel RGB color accuracy and postscript pixel perfection so what you see on the screen represents exactly what is printed out. Because MacOSX/Windows has APIs built for an actual desktop not a protocol for terminals it has features built in like an action or notification center, taskbar features, etc. Linux has these baked in with all different implementations and each program has to support them. For example not every gui program supports Cinnamons features for notifications or Elementry's MacOS like styling and full integration. 

You don't need font servers, sound servers, and other weird arounds on any other platform and with WDDM and the Apple equilivent  (quartz I believe but I could be wrong) I have smooth scroll on my 165 hz 1440p panels and fluid video and no chops. On Mint you get a chop chop chop scrolling down or up which gave me OCD and was unusable. I also get 3d accelerated graphics outside of smooth scroll which Linux can't do because Xorg isn't designed for it. 

I tried Fedora Cinnamon last summer for the first time in 11 years and as soon as my pc fell asleep and woke back up my fonts in Firefox were garbled due to a bug in the display driver and or font server. Yep it was just as horrible as it was 11 years ago and nothing improved. I gave up a decade ago on Linux Fanboyism and decided to grow up as work needed to get done and Windows 7 was gorgeous

They asked for a PM…🤦‍♂️

On 24/04/2023 at 01:04, sinetheo said:

It's not using Xorg. It has it's own framebuffer. X11 apps can't support hardware based font rendering or smooth scroll. There is no wddm gpu scheduling support. Your ignorance is what is showing as I used it 22 years ago and know a lot more on what I am talking about. The Linux fanboys do not other than tie their ego to a piece of software. Have fun with your buggs and choppy gui experience 

Xorg is going out

Again, your experience is outdated.

On 24/04/2023 at 10:00, Arceles said:

Xorg is going out

Again, your experience is outdated.

Wayland was supposed to take over in 2009 and it still hasn't. It won't. For example Discord uses a security vulnerability in Xorg to share hotkeys. The vulnerability is one user can see keyboard and mouse events to others. Code uses these apis to accomplish this. That is one example. Wayland doesn't have driver support that I am aware of and yes my knowledge is very old. I think Fedora Cinnamon where I had the fonts bug may have even ran Wayland.

I am not dissing Linux for it's uses. With Server grade supported hardware you have the support built in. I personally prefer FreeBSD as they do not include half baked drivers and they work or they do not and it is more simplistic and easier to config without excess daemons. 

I use Pfsense vms for my routers in Hyper-v and I use WSl or a Vm for either OS or at work I have Azure and AWS for instances. 

On 24/04/2023 at 18:03, sinetheo said:

Wayland was supposed to take over in 2009 and it still hasn't. It won't. For example Discord uses a security vulnerability in Xorg to share hotkeys. The vulnerability is one user can see keyboard and mouse events to others. Code uses these apis to accomplish this. That is one example. Wayland doesn't have driver support that I am aware of and yes my knowledge is very old. I think Fedora Cinnamon where I had the fonts bug may have even ran Wayland.

I am not dissing Linux for it's uses. With Server grade supported hardware you have the support built in. I personally prefer FreeBSD as they do not include half baked drivers and they work or they do not and it is more simplistic and easier to config without excess daemons. 

I use Pfsense vms for my routers in Hyper-v and I use WSl or a Vm for either OS or at work I have Azure and AWS for instances. 

You can say much about your experience and this is still the internet.

I shared a link in regards about how Xorg is well already on its way out and how basically it dismisses your claims regarding refresh rate issues in monitors as well as hw accelerated video in modern linux distributions.

In your words these issues were the things that make linux not viable, but clearly, your experience was outdated and now you resort to include bugs from 3rd party programs like discord, which leads me to think that you are just a windows fanboy trying to blame linux for the demise of modern windows releases.

The main reason that Linux hasn't had mainstream adoption is simple, outside of the tech world, your average user doesn't care.

They buy their phone from a phone shop, they buy their laptop from wherever that comes from (usually either a walmart like store that sells pcs, or a vendor that mainly offers prebuilds and laptops) with windows, and they leave it that way, most the time they aren't even aware of the level of customisation within Windows, never mind installing another OS.

Meanwhile inside the tech world:

While many of us want Linux to succeed (and given the direction Windows has gone in since Windows 7, I'm fast joining that camp) many of us also have specific needs that only Windows covers

 

Windows struggled to get adoption in it's early days, but now it has close to full market saturation, Linux will need to do everything windows does, and better to gain more acceptance, and then it will also need OEMs to stop shipping windows to the average consumer.

Linux also needs significant more backing from Hardware makers, many devices have drivers for Windows, perhaps on a good day Windows and OSX, while comparatively few offer drivers for Linux. While the Linux community is great at making open source drivers, many users will only install a driver from the manufacturer, as this is good security practice.

  • Like 2
On 24/04/2023 at 22:37, Arceles said:

You can say much about your experience and this is still the internet.

I shared a link in regards about how Xorg is well already on its way out and how basically it dismisses your claims regarding refresh rate issues in monitors as well as hw accelerated video in modern linux distributions.

In your words these issues were the things that make linux not viable, but clearly, your experience was outdated and now you resort to include bugs from 3rd party programs like discord, which leads me to think that you are just a windows fanboy trying to blame linux for the demise of modern windows releases.

Reread my post. I was waiting for Wayland when Bush was still president. Call me cynical after 14 years it's still going to be ready any day now next to the year of the Linux desktop from 1999 on slashdot.org. I pay money for Windows as it's a superior desktop operating system compared to Linux.

Now since I unplugged thanks to Windows 7 finally being something I find the concept weird to run anything but Windows on a PC. Fun wise unless you are a nerd Android or IOS are better. Work wise Microsoft Excel, Adobe PDF, and any app that is specialized for their career QuickBooks, AutoCad, great plains accounting etc,  are superior and what most people use a PC for.

Linux has its uses but like a motorcycle vs a car vs a truck vs a jeep all have their different uses.

  • 2 months later...

I replied before, stating I upgraded one of my computers to Windows 11 Pro immediately. Since then, I have switched to Ghost Spectre Windows 11 Pro Compact. It does not have all the extras in Windows 11 I never used. It requires much less memory, disk space and runs much faster. I can go from powered off to being able to start using the computer in about 45 seconds or less.

On 11/07/2023 at 02:15, Max1955 said:

I replied before, stating I upgraded one of my computers to Windows 11 Pro immediately. Since then, I have switched to Ghost Spectre Windows 11 Pro Compact. It does not have all the extras in Windows 11 I never used. It requires much less memory, disk space and runs much faster. I can go from powered off to being able to start using the computer in about 45 seconds or less.

My old 6-year-old AMD Ryzen 7 can boot standard Windows 10 Pro in less than 45 seconds.  Going by what you are saying, Windows 11 is slower to boot up unless your computer is very low powered. My Mac mini boots in even less time.

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Here are the most important specifications: TerraMaster F4-425 Pro CPU Intel Core N350 (8x E Cores/Threads, Max burst up to 3.9 GHz) Intel Core N305 (4x E Cores/Threads, Max burst up to 3.8 GHz) TDP: 7W / 9W (Base) Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 32 EUs (1.35 GHz) Intel UHD Graphics 24 EUs (1.25 GHz) Memory 1x slot 16 GB DDR5 4800MT/s non ECC SODIMM (Max 32 GB) 1x slot 8 GB DDR5 4800MT/s non ECC SODIMM (Max 32 GB) Disk Capacity 120 TB (30 TB x 4) Supported RAID Types TRAID, TRAID +, RAID0, RAID1, RAID5, RAID 6, RAID 10 Network 2x RJ-45 5 GbE Internal storage 3x M.2 2280 NVMe Slot (PCIe 3.0 x1) Bootloader 2Gbit 256 GB NAND Flash card (MX30LF2G28AD) USB port (internal) USB Ports 1x Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) 3x Type-A 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) HDMI 1x (HDMI) Hardware Transcoding Engine H.264, H.265, MPEG-4, VC-1 Maximum resolution: 4K (4096 x 2160); Maximum FPS: 60 Size (H/W/D) 219 x 181 x 150 mm Weight 2.9 kg System Fan 150 x181 x 219 mm Power 90W, 100V - 240V AC, 50/60 Hz, Single frequency Power consumption (HDDs) 45W (4x 4TB ST4000VN008 in read/write state) 14W (4x 4TB ST4000VN008 in hibernation) Noise Level: 20.9 dB(A) Using 4 SATA HDDs/SSDs in standby mode; Test environment noise: 17.3dB(A); Test distance: 1m Warranty 2 Years OS TOS 7.0.0706 (Beta) MSRP £639.99, $699.99, €739.99 / £739.99, $799.99, €839.99 As you can see above, there are two variants of the F4-425 Pro releasing today. The lesser variant has the slightly weaker N305 CPU and iGP, and 8 GB less RAM, although it also costs $100 less than the top variant we are testing today. In addition, these new F4-425 Pros are shipped with the as-yet-unreleased TOS 7 beta. So what is TOS 7 exactly? During the device initialization, you are warned not to use it in a production environment, which we'll get into later. My contact told me that TOS 7 exits beta today, June 23 with version 7.0.0746. The clear difference with the F4-425 Plus is that it contains the more powerful N350 Intel CPU released in the first quarter of 2025, with support for DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, LPDDR5 (4800), DDR5 and DDR4, and a max TDP of just 7W. It also supports AV1 decoding, as well as H.264, VP8, VP9, H.265 (8 bit), and H.265 (10 bit). The different capabilities in the Alder Lake-N (and Twin Lake) series are listed below. Processor E-cores L3-cache Turbo clock GPU GPU-clock TDP Intel N355 8 6 MB 3.9 GHz 32 EUs 1.35 GHz 9 W Intel Core 3 N350 3.9 GHz 1.35 GHz 7 W Intel Core i3-N305 3.8 GHz 1.25 GHz 9 W Intel Core i3-N300 3.8 GHz 1.25 GHz Intel N250 4 3.8 GHz 1.25 GHz 6 W Intel Processor N200 3.7 GHz 0.75 GHz Intel N150 3.6 GHz 24 EUs 1 GHz Intel N97 1.2 GHz 12 W Intel Processor N100 3.4 GHz 0.75 GHz 6 W The CPU is part of the Alder Lake-N series that sits just below the top N355 offering, albeit with an impressive TDP (less than the N355 and N305) for the features it offers. It is designed for low- powered systems and entry-level laptops. As before, we are seeing another NAS with an acceptable, if not great, amount of RAM. It should be noted that the F4-425 Pro only has one SODIMM slot, so if you are planning to upgrade the already 16GB included in this NAS, it will have to be on one module of Single Rank DDR5. As a reminder, up until a couple of years ago, it was commonplace to only get 2 or 4GB max on a flagship Synology or QNAP home NAS. Ever since the likes of TerraMaster and more have entered the market with ample RAM sizes included in their NAS offerings, it has gone a long way in forcing the hands of the traditional makers to up their game a bit. Before we dive in, you can view the different SKUs released so far since the 2025 series launched for Home and SMB users, with the most important specifications listed along with the MSRP listed below: SKU CPU Cores Memory Link Price F2-425 Intel N5095 4 4 GB DDR4 2.5 GbE x1 $249.99 F4-425 Intel N5095 4 4 GB DDR4 2.5 GbE x1 $369.99 F2-425 Plus Intel Core N150 4 8 GB DDR5 5 GbE x 2 $399.99 F4-425 Plus Intel Core N150 4 16 GB DDR5 5 GbE x 2 $569.99 F4-425 Pro Intel Core N305 8 8 GB DDR5 5 GbE x 2 $699.99 F4-425 Pro Intel Core N350 8 16 GB DDR5 5 GbE x 2 $799.99 The F2 in the product name means two 3.5-inch HDD bays, where F4 is four 2.5-inch bays. First impressions Like with the F8 SSD Plus packaging, the F4-425 Pro is using the upgraded box materials, which certainly look better than a plain cream colored box with TERRAMASTER stamped on the sides. The box gives off a premium feel and certainly adds a positive vibe to first impressions. In the box F4-425 Pro TNAS device Power adapter LAN cable (CAT 6) Quick guide [full online guide] Limited warranty notice Screws (for HDD bays) Stickers 2x rubber feet (spares) Design As has become kind of common with TerraMaster, certainly in the last three years, the 2025 F2- and F4-series have received a makeover that really adds to the premium feel of the NAS. Gone are the plastic shells, now replaced with an aluminum outer shell, with the front and back retaining the textured black plastic we saw on the 2024 models. Some key differences from the 2024 series include placing the power button back on the front, along with the addition of a Type A USB port. It's not much bigger or heavier either; in fact, it weighs 500 grams less than the F4-424 Pro. It's slightly shorter in height and depth (length), but only by a few millimeters. The front and back do retain a similar style to the 2024 series. On the front, you just have your four bays along with LED indicators for the HDDs and power. The welcomed change is having a USB port on the front for quick access, should you need to back up a USB drive, for example. Around the back, from top to bottom, you have a reset pin hole, an HDMI port, two 5 GbE Ethernet ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type A ports with a Type-C port below them, and a connector for the barrel port power source. Again, there's no Kensington Security Slot present, which is a bit of a shame considering it's a data storage device. Left side Right side On the left and right of the F4-425 Plus, it is completely smooth aluminum with a TERRAMASTER logo printed on both sides. On the bottom, there are some holes to assist ventilation. Unlike with the F4-425 Plus, the rubber feet did come unstuck during the teardown, which was also an issue on the 2023 series. It seems like other customers have lodged complaints about them, as TerraMaster now includes two spare rubber feet in the box, in case any of the preinstalled ones are lost; however, this seems more like a papering over the cracks solution rather than actually fixing the issue with better quality rubber stand-offs. There are also four screws that must be removed in order to access the internals. Teardown Upon removing the four screws, you can slide the device out of its shell to reveal the three NVMe M.2 slots (PCIe 3.0 X1) and single SODIMM slot connector, which is populated with a single 16GB DDR5 4800MT/s module. I added a couple of MP44Q M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs (2 x 4TB) that can be availed on Amazon for $492.99 that TEAMGROUP supplied us with, along with a 250GB 970 Evo Plus that my colleague Chris White sent me by accident and let me keep a few years ago. As I have said in previous reviews, TerraMaster support staff actually encourage installing whatever you want on their devices, and happily, the USB port for the bootloader is now easily accessible should you want to use it for your own flavor of NAS OS, such as TrueNAS, Unraid, or maybe Xpenology. Yes, because TerraMaster has now switched to a 256 GB NAND Flash card (3rd photo above) for the TOS bootloader. This is also replaceable, but you can also simply add a USB bootloader, access the BIOS, and tell the F4-425 Pro to boot from that instead of the Flash card. Unlike earlier iterations of TerraMaster NAS, you don't have to tear this down any further than the four screws on the outer shell in order to be able to access and manage the memory, NVMe slots, and USB bootloader. However, if you need to access the NAND Flash card or CMOS battery, then eight more screws (four on each side) need to be removed in order to take off the rear panel with the 120mm fan, and then the motherboard can be lifted off and removed from the SATA connector PCB. There's also no risk of threading the screw holes, because the four that hold the shell in place are metal on metal, while the screws that hold the rear panel on do screw into plastic. Either way, like last time when I reviewed the F4-425 plus, I was just happier to see larger screws being used. Overall, it follows some great improvements in build quality from the 2024 series and earlier. Setup BIOS The F4-425 Pro includes an Aptio BIOS from American Megatrends [1, 2], and you can setup pretty much everything here including the boot order, which is locked to the UEFI OS, however above that choice you can enable or disable booting to the USB bootloader so this would still allow you to switch to a USB stick with an alternative bootloader and boot from it, or disable it to instead always start from the first disk with an OS installed on it. Initial Setup Setup is roughly the same as the F4-425 Plus, along with the new TOS 7 setup dialogs, so there will be no surprises here. Upon connecting to the LAN and booting up, the F4-425 Pro can be reached by navigating to http://tnas.local. If that doesn't work, you can use the local address assigned via DHCP, which you can find using the TNAS PC desktop application, which is essentially a TerraMaster NAS finder. The setup process is pretty straightforward, through a wizard, and in full below: TOS 7 Initialization As you can see, TOS 7 received a new coat of paint, and the initialization requires fewer interactions. Happily, TOS no longer decides to throw all disks into the same Storage Pool; 2.5-inch HDDs are allocated into Storage Pool 1. This is because two of the HDDs are allocated to hold system files. Previously (with TOS 5 and 6), if you pre-installed HDDs and SSDs, they were all placed into Storage Pool 1, even if you did not select the SSDs for inclusion during the onboarding. TOS 7 Setup On first boot, there is a tutorial and some steps to take to harden the TNAS (or not), which includes an immediate update from TOS 7.0.0616 to 7.0.0706, of which the changelog screenshot is also included in the above gallery. It must be noted that the Security Advisor still contains (in my opinion) a pretty major bug in that if you enable SPC and then do the required rebooting, the Security Advisor still says that SPC is disabled. TerraMaster provided the following statement about it: It is disappointing that TOS 7 has been in beta since December, and this OOBE issue is still there. Shutdown option has moved Instead of a Taskbar option to manage the NAS, all of these options have been moved to a "Start panel", initially I didn't see it and my contact had to show me how to power off the F4-425 Pro. To logout, reboot or power off you can find those controls at the top right of the Panel. It is also possible to power off through the TNAS mobile app beta. Storage setup Above, you can see the steps I took to create the Storage Pools and Volumes. I made a second Storage Pool using TRAID on two 4TB MP44Q SSDs (which, in this instance, is similar to RAID 5), and finally, I added the 250GB 970 Evo Plus drive as Hyper Cache on Storage Pool 1 in Balanced mode. Registering If you decide not to lock down the F4-425 Pro in Security Isolation Mode (blocking all external connections), then you could set up a TNAS device ID through the Remote Access setting in the Control Panel (which must be unique). This works in combination with an online TerraMaster account. TOS 7 TNAS Online Creating a TerraMaster account and linking the device online activates the warranty when you provide proof of purchase and the serial number, but it also gives you access through the TNAS mobile app, which allows you to complete certain operationsб including powering off and restarting the NAS remotely. A TNAS mobile update is required to gain access through TOS 7, and this is provided on the TerraMaster website, as it is not yet on Google Play. The app is evolving all the time and has made leaps and bounds since I first started reviewing TerraMaster devices almost three years ago. It is not quite there yet if you are comparing the likes of Synology, which, sadly, a lot of users online do all the time. OpenClaw setup One of the main selling points of the new F4-425 Pro is the inclusion of OpenClaw, with TerraMaster claiming that it is "powered by the world's first AI-native TOS 7 OS, supporting local-first smart workflows and independent data control." However, I immediately ran into problems trying to enable OpenClaw. After waiting 20 minutes at the "Enabling" message of the OpenClaw app following installation, I decided to do some searching online and discovered that it couldn't complete the installation process due to SPC being enabled, which is something TOS 7 immediately recommends to be enabled on first boot. SPC for NAS (TOS 7) is basically the same principle as UAC in Windows; it blocks executables from being launched by non-Super Users. After reaching out to my contact about these issues, I received the following response: Anyway, this only became clear when I closed the OpenClaw app screen and clicked on the OpenClaw icon in the taskbar; that is when I saw the message about disabling SPC. I think, due to the fact that this is a requirement, this should be a prompt during the installation process, not when closing the App Market and then trying to launch OpenClaw. There's also no 'Getting started' guide for people like me who have never used OpenClaw. I tried to add an LLM and discovered the tutorial led nowhere. That's when I started looking around the official TerraMaster forums, and I found a guide that helpfully explains that you won't get anywhere with OpenClaw unless you have a paid plan, which is disappointing because I imagined there would be an option to use a local LLM as I do in SubtitleEdit with Whisper-XXL. In addition, with the marketing imagery on the official site, it says that the OpenClaw feature is "all processed 100% locally for absolute privacy." which led me to believe that I could install a local LLM, not one that required paid tokens. In any case, TerraMaster does not provide guidance for this new feature, which was also a selling point of the F4-425 Pro! My contact also provided clarification about the above points I raised with TerraMaster Since it is not in the scope of the review to add paid services, I'll leave that to the people who are more qualified with OpenClaw. F4-425 Pro Surveillance App TOS also comes with a Surveillance app, which is not installed by default; it can be found in the App Market recommended section. In addition, after installing, it doesn't drop a shortcut on the Desktop or top taskbar, but you can "Send to Desktop" from the App Market listing for the app for a quick way to open it. Adding my Reolink POE doorbell camera was painless. TerraMaster doesn't appear to have a repository of preconfigured cameras; instead, the camera must be added using ONVIF or RTSP. No mobile Surveillance app TerraMaster still doesn't have a dedicated Surveillance app, although from searching online, Surveillance can be used and managed through the TNAS mobile app. I tried this with the updated TNAS mobile app beta in combination with TOS 7 and got a message that Surveillance was "Only accessible through web browser," so I reckon this must be limited to the stable versions of TOS 6 and the mobile app. More quirks In addition, whenever I minimized the Live View window in the browser Surveillance app, the feed appeared to switch to the Low-bandwidth stream, and there was no way to get the High-quality stream back. To get the High-quality stream back, I had to close Live View and then reopen it. Benchmarking A pretty cool feature of the TOS 7 is that it allows you to install directly to the NVMe M.2 SSD. In order to do that, you would have to leave out any HDDs during initialization, and even then, the system partitions are always written to two HDDs when they are eventually added. With three NVMe slots, this also gives an interesting scenario where you could build a TRAID storage Pool for installing all your apps and Docker on, and keep the third for SSD cache on the HDD pool. Limitless options! SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 5 GbE hub was well within acceptable ranges. Although the read result on SATA was a little less than with the F4-425 Plus, for some reason, while writes were generally better. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. TOS 7, which, as of testing, is still in Beta, comes with an App Center that has a bunch of handy programs you can install right off the bat, such as Emby, Plex, Docker, as well as in-house Backup and Surveillance solutions. As you can imagine, any media streaming services you would want to host off the F4-425 Pro will work great, thanks to the Intel Core N350 CPU and its 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Accessing from mobile is only possible if Security Isolation Mode is disabled, which can put your NAS at risk from external sources, so there was no way to access it from the TNAS Mobile app. It's also quiet. I had this sat next to my computer on my work desk for the past week, and I did wonder if the noise I was accustomed to with NAS devices would annoy me, but all I could hear was a soft whirring of the rear fan (which was a little annoying) when the disks were not actively copying or reading data. Conclusion So what have I learned? Unfortunately, this release raises a few important questions and concerns that I feel haven't been adequately addressed. What I didn't like Our variant shipped with TOS 7 beta, and it's advised not to use it in a production environment. I feel that's a bit limiting on an $800 device. The mobile app is also still in beta and does not support some of the first-party apps, like Surveillance, and it still has quite a few bugs. I am a bit confused about the OpenClaw marketing along with the F4-425 Pro. I feel like that if it's going to be a main selling point, then offer official guidance on how to get started with it. TerraMaster recommends enabling SPC, but then markets the NAS for use with OpenClaw, which requires disabling SPC to be able to use it, opening up genuine security concerns for the NAS; and that's before you get into the security concerns of OpenClaw itself. Of course, the above issues won't be a problem if you decide to install something else on it, or even go back to the stable TOS 6. I wish TerraMaster had just given TOS 7 as opt-in rather than shipping with it. TOS 7 has been available as a preview since December 2025 (so well before my last TerraMaster review), and according to a thread on Reddit where a user shared a screenshot from the TerraMaster Facebook page, it is scheduled to launch today, June 23, but there's nothing about that in the TerraMaster news blog. My contact confirmed over email that TOS 7 exits beta today. The rubber feet also deserve a mention as they continue to be a problem, with them coming unstuck the moment you shift the F4-425 Pro anywhere on your desk. What I liked What it comes down to, though, aside from what I already mentioned, you are still getting a quality, affordable device here, so recommending it will depend on the individual's use case. If you're just looking for a relatively small NAS device to manage virtual machines on, backup your files, and take care of your home theater streaming, then it is a great device that will certainly futureproof you for some time. It provides good performance, takes up little space, and is, on the whole, very quiet. Four bays afford proper redundancy using TRAID or RAID 5, and you can even expand on storage capacity by adding the 2-bay D5, or 4-bay D8 Hybrid DAS over a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) link. Considering the 2024 releases were more about power, with the likes of an Intel Core i5-1235U high-end laptop CPU under the hood, I asked my contact last time if we could expect more of the same in higher-end models and was told: It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N350 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the F4-425 Pro is intended for, media streaming and backup. The only downside is still the clear lack of community and even staff support on the official forums. In the past, I have had topics go unanswered for days, or there would be generic-type "we've noted this and passed it onto our developer team" type responses. Along with the other things I mentioned, it all ends up costing it a couple of points. If you are comfortable with the command line, Docker, and setting up TrueNAS or Unraid, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. In TOS, the apps are a bit lacking, and things don't always work as expected.\ AI NAS?! What has become clear to me this year is that we are going to start seeing all kinds of "AI NAS" come to market, and while that might be good for us consumers, be diligent and research these claims. Although the F4-425 Pro technically comes with AI, it is really using a cloud service that is externally sourced off-device through the third party OpenClaw app. My colleague did review a newcomer to the NAS space earlier this year, and it includes a local AI assistant inside the Zettlab D4 NAS, and they do not even use AI in the product name, check out Chris' review here. Where to buy and a discount coupon However, it does not change the fact that this is truly a great entry-level home media-class NAS that you can buy right now. TerraMaster is having a 20% off launch discount, plus you can also still apply our unique 10% off coupon on checkout, which only works on the official website. So here is a breakdown of the pricing that is only valid on the official TerraMaster website. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $575.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $503.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £525.59 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £460.79 Use NEOWIN coupon code during checkout for 10% discount Over on Amazon US and UK, the F4-425 Pro also gets a 20% launch discount, but here, the above 10% coupon cannot be applied. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for $639.99 at Amazon US (was $799.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for $559.99 at Amazon US (was $699.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for £583.99 at Amazon UK (was £729.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for £511.99 at Amazon UK (was £639.99) As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.
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