The OFFICIAL Longhorn (ALPHA) Thread

By wI-OSMAN-
in The Fast Ring (Insider Previews)

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Guest Ryan

Posted
Posted

:o oh i'm gonna get it now for revivng this topic over soemthing like this that i had all ready posted earlier. :ninja: oh well. i know they're out there, so i'm gonna keep trying till i find them.... :rolleyes: i know longhorn has some stuff new in it i want. could someone please send me the cursors, icons, sounds, and wallpaper from it? i don't care from what build, but if they've changed over time, please send me it all. please forgive me for resurecting this thread over something like this! :pinch:

Ryan.?

Grand Master

raid517

Posted
Posted
http://www.research.ibm.com/gsal/tcpa/

Open Source TCPA Linux Driver

:D

Maybe you can decide for yourself whether TCPA is really so controlling now?

Hmm.. How did I end up back here after all this time? Oh well as for that comment you should be clear that TCPA is not DRM and is not Palladeum. Paladeum and DRM as MS' evil plan to take over the world, TCPA is a harware facility that is meant to protect your computer against the execution of bad code. That doesn't mean illegal stuff, it just means badly written code and bad viruses. Palladeum is MS' b*stard perversion of TCPA a chip, designed and built by them to mimic the best features of the TCPA and add several more propriatory features of MS' own design, most of which relate to DRM technology. Which basically boils down to MS deciding for you what you can and cannot do with your computer.

Its a fairly significant distinction. But just in case you ever come accross the subject again, think of it in terms of "TCPA good", "Palladeum and DRM" bad... Paladeum is still a vile technology who's ultimate objective remains to crucify the GPL and eliminate the free exchange of non MS certified software. They have lied and falsely associated themselves with TCPA in an attempt to hijack what is potentailly a very useful and non invasive technology for their own selfish and entirely malicious ends. Do not confuse the two.

Q

Veteran

Jason

Posted
Posted
http://www.research.ibm.com/gsal/tcpa/

Open Source TCPA Linux Driver

:D

Maybe you can decide for yourself whether TCPA is really so controlling now?

Hmm.. How did I end up back here after all this time? Oh well as for that comment you should be clear that TCPA is not DRM and is not Palladeum. Paladeum and DRM as MS' evil plan to take over the world, TCPA is a harware facility that is meant to protect your computer against the execution of bad code. That doesn't mean illegal stuff, it just means badly written code and bad viruses. Palladeum is MS' b*stard perversion of TCPA a chip, designed and built by them to mimic the best features of the TCPA and add several more propriatory features of MS' own design, most of which relate to DRM technology. Which basically boils down to MS deciding for you what you can and cannot do with your computer.

Its a fairly significant distinction. But just in case you ever come accross the subject again, think of it in terms of "TCPA good", "Palladeum and DRM" bad... Paladeum is still a vile technology who's ultimate objective remains to crucify the GPL and eliminate the free exchange of non MS certified software. They have lied and falsely associated themselves with TCPA in an attempt to hijack what is potentailly a very useful and non invasive technology for their own selfish and entirely malicious ends. Do not confuse the two.

Q

I would like to see 100% factual proof on the BS you write.

Grand Master

NeoMayhem

Posted
Posted

Anything that controls what you do on YOUR computer is bad, I would rather see a few people get viruses then not beable to have there music collections and whatever else they want on there computer :p

MSs goal is to monoplize computers more then they have already :(

Grand Master

Steven

Posted
Posted
HEY!! i just installed windows longhorn.. takes a while to boott.. but its great.. now i just have to try out some programs.

how do you get windows update to work

You Dont.

Lornhorn is a piece of utter crap, its an experiment in this stage.

Grand Master

raid517

Posted
Posted (edited)
I would like to see 100% factual proof on the BS you write.

How about IBM? You need acrobat reader installed to read this but it is straight from IBM. It discusses how TCPA and Palladeum are two comletely different things. http://www.research.ibm.com/gsal/tcpa/tcpa...pa_rebuttal.pdf Palladeum is MS' own propriatory perversion of TCPA, an attempt to go a lot futher (take a lot more control of your computing experience). And enough with the bad mouthing pal. Anyway I'm not going to waste my time arguing with a lame ass AOL'er who has no clue about what's going on in the world around them. Just tell me one thing, which Linux distro are you currently using and which features do you like best about the latest kernel version? Tell me that and then I might believe you know what the hell you are talking about. Otherwise STFU and get an education...

Q

Ps

And to the guy above who did say something quite sensible. I agree dude, but you are confusing the two again. Read what TCPA is and what Palladeum is. There are very clear distinctions. TCPA has nothing to do with looking at what music you have on your computer. Again this is MS' idea to attempt to affiliate themselves with a respectible technology (when that technology really has nothing at all to do with them) and use it for their own selfish ends. As I have said before a little reading on the subject can reveal a lot. Mmm... yes I remember why I quit this thread before... I think it was because I suggested reading about it to some other AOL'ers who went completely ballistic at the idea that they might have to read anything... Well no doubt I will have rattled a few of their cages again for a bit... But I have no intention of wasting my time arguing with this kind of person. I just thought it prudent to help correct a common misconception. :)

Edited by raid517
Veteran

Jason

Posted
Posted (edited)
How about IBM? You need acrobat reader installed to read this but it is straight from IBM. It discusses how TCPA and Palladeum are two comletely different things. http://www.research.ibm.com/gsal/tcpa/tcpa...pa_rebuttal.pdf Palladeum is MS' own propriatory perversion of TCPA, an attempt to go a lot futher (take a lot more control of your computing experience). And enough with the bad mouthing pal. Anyway I'm not going to waste my time arguing with a lame ass AOL'er who has no clue about whats going on in the world around them. Just tell me one thing, which Linux distro are you currently using and which features do you like best about the latest kernel version? Tell me that and then I might believe you know what the hell you are talking about. Otherwise STFU and get an education...

Q

Ps

And to the guy above who did say something quite sensible. I agree dude, but you are confusing the two again. Read what TCPA is and what Palladeum is. There are very clear distinctions. TCPA has nothing to do with looking at? what music you have on your computer. Again this is MS' idea to attempt to affiliate themselves with a respectible technology (when that technology really has nothing at all to do with them) and use it for their own selfish ends. As I have said before a little reading on the subject can reveal a lot. Mmm... yes I remember why I quit this thread before... I think it was because I suggested reading about it to some other AOL'ers who went completely ballistic at the idea that they might have to read anything... Well no doubt I will have rattled a few of their cages again for a bit... But I have no intention of wasting my time arguing with this kind of person. I just thought it prudent to help correct a common misconception.:))

You seem to think you know a lot about me from a few words I write.

I cannot stand people that make stuff up, I go by facts and facts only in life. I have probably got a better education than you as I can tell from the way you write I am a lot older than you, you seem to be still in school.

Also You seem to have a lot of built up anger, were you abused as a child ?

By the way I have been a Network admin for 5 years, so don't try to get smart it doesn't work.

Edited by Jason
Grand Master

Glowstick

Posted
Posted

Why would MS create their own soup called SCP when they're a major player in the TCPA thing? Maybe that section in the IBM paper is based on rivality? Or maybe the guy just got it wrong just because MS did call the TPM differently, as they do with everything? MS assigns idiotic names to stuff all the time.

And what bugs me the most is that the Pd whitepapers are linked from Neowin instead of Microsoft (no offense meant).

Grand Master

raid517

Posted
Posted (edited)
By the way I have been a Network admin for 5 years, so don't try to get smart it doesn't work.

Lol network admin my a*s. If you were you would be able to understand what that document was talking about and the distinctions it made. As much as you can't stand people who trouble themselves to study the subject in some depth before passing any comment, I can't stand this level of mind numbing ignorance. Lol now its even being said that things comming from official sources aren't true. IBM is lying now. BTW that document doesn't come from Neowin its what's known as a HTML link (since you don't seem too clear on this) which links directly to the official IBM site. Basically I support TCPA, the documment explains why TCPA is good, but it also explains why TCPA and Palladeum are not the same thing - and therefore how by implication MS' affiliation with the Trustworthy Computing Initiative (which has been signed up to by many widely known and respected companies) is blatantly false - and is being used by them to push their own brand of DRM technology.

And as for being abused... Dude you started it off. If you give abuse you have to be prepared to accept abuse. If you had even remotely tried to respond in reasonable and respectible terms, no doubt you would have recieved the same back. But if you can't take what you dish out, then don't do it in the first place. Its that simple.

Q

Edited by raid517
Veteran

Jason

Posted
Posted
Lol network admin my a*s. If you were you would be able to understand what that doccument was talking about and the distinctions it made. As much as you can't stand people who trouble themselves to study the subject in some depth before passing any comment, I can't stand this level of mind numbing ignorance. Lol now its even being said that things comming from official sources aren't true. IBM is lying now. BTW that document doesn't come from Neowin its what's known as a HTML link (since you don't seem too clear on this) which links directly to the official IBM site. Basically I support TCPA, the documment explains why TCPA is good, but it also explains why TCPA and Palladeum are not the same thing - and therefore how by implication MS' affiliation with the Trustworthy Computing Initiative (which has been signed up to by many widely known and respected companies) is blatantly false - and is being used by them to push their own brand of DRM technology.

And as for being abused. Dude you started it off. If you give abuse you have to be prepared to accept abuse. If you had even remotely tried to respond in reasonable and respectible terms, no doubt you would have recieved the same in return. But if you can't take what you dish out, then don't do it in the first place. Its that simple.

Q

There you go again making stuff up, I am 28 years old did an IT degree then got a job as a Network Admin, whats the big deal with that ?

IBM would say Palladium is bad as they are Microsoft's main rival, I doubt IBM have that much knowledge of what MS are doing with Palladium.

All I trust (currently) is the MS white paper on Palladium as they are the ones creating the thing.

Collaborator

jimf43

Posted
Posted
off the subject...who is your avator picture keldyn? i originally thought it was you ive seen sum1 else with it so i guess not

Simon Baker plays Nick Fallin in 'The Guardian' tv series

http://www.tvtome.com/Guardian/

I'm sure that one reason for Keldyn's choice is that Simon Baker is a fellow Ozzie.

Grand Master

raid517

Posted
Posted (edited)
There you go again making stuff up, I am 28 years old did an IT degree then got a job as a Network Admin, whats the big deal with that ?

IBM would say Palladium is bad as they are Microsoft's main rival, I doubt IBM have that much knowledge of what MS are doing with Palladium.

All I trust (currently) is the MS white paper on Palladium as they are the ones creating the thing.

Lol big deal, your a network admin. My wife is a network admin at our local college, but she still comes to me to get me to fix her computer when things go wrong.

As for just trusting MS, well good luck to you. Your exactly the kind of fresh meat MS is looking for. Rivals or not that paper was very clear and very fair. It made no judgements about Palladeum - and only noted how Palladeum and TCPA were technically different and should not be confused. TCPA was an IBM concieved technology. It is MS who are attempting to falsely associate themselves with it and push their own DRM technology as an alternative. The only reason I dislike people like your good self is that your ignorance will potentially spoil the computing experience for the true enthusiasts among us, since this aritcle also clearly implies that MS' Palladeum technology, if widely adopted, could pose a grave threat to the GPL. I don't give a damn about Windows, or all the warez monkies in the world, but when you start to scr*w with the GPL then your going to run the risk of upsetting a whole lot of very bright people. On the scale of things, this isn't altogether a wise thing to do. This is about civil liberties and freedom of choice - and if you don't feel that these are pricipals worth fighting for then I certainly do. As I said, I hope you and MS will be very happy together. You definately deserve each other.

Q

Edited by raid517
Veteran

Jason

Posted
Posted
There you go again making stuff up, I am 28 years old did an IT degree then got a job as a Network Admin, whats the big deal with that ?

IBM would say Palladium is bad as they are Microsoft's main rival, I doubt IBM have that much knowledge of what MS are doing with Palladium.

All I trust (currently) is the MS white paper on Palladium as they are the ones creating the thing.

Lol big deal, your a network admin. My wife is a network admin at our local college, but she still comes to me to get me to fix her computer when things go wrong.

As for just trusting MS, well good luck to you. Your exactly the kind of fresh meat MS is looking for. Rivals or not that paper was very clear and very fair. It made no judgements about Palladeum - and only noted how Palladeum and TCPA were technically different and should not be confused. TCPA was an IBM concieved technology. It is MS who are attempting to falsely associate themselves with it and push their own DRM technology as an alternative. The only reason I dislike people like your good self is that your ignorance will potentially spoil the computing experience for the true enthusiasts among us, since this aritcle also clearly implies that MS' Palladeum technology, if widely adopted, could pose a grave threat to the GPL. I don't give a damn about Windows, or all the warez monkies in the world, but when you start to scr*w with the GPL then your going to run the risk of upsetting a whole lot of very bright people. On the scale of things, this isn't altogether a wise thing to do. This is about civil liberties and freedom of choice - and if you don't feel that these are pricipals worth fighting for then I certainly do. As I said, I hope you and MS will be very happy together. You definately deserve each other.

Q

Well each to their own I don't care much for GPL, I also don't care about "warez monkies either" I work primarily with MS products (although we have some SUN servers) and I enjoy doing so.

I don't just trust MS but I do trust them more with their own products than I would a rival to tell me about them, but my mind is not closed as I said I go by facts but for now as not much information is around the MS white paper is about all I trust.

Palladium is being developed because people want better security and I hope it does exactly this, remember it will be optional, you don't have to use it.

Also, Your wife should not be in her job if she has to go to someone else to get a computer fixed.

Grand Master

raid517

Posted
Posted
Well each to their own I don't care much for GPL, I also don't care about "warez monkeys either" I work primarily with MS products
Perhaps you don't care, but it is unfair to say that it should be destroyed just because you don't care about it/can't grasp how it might be important. Even if you are a foaming at the mouth capitalist, you have to agree that freedom of choice and competition are healthy. Saying you will only believe MS is like saying that you will tolerate or accept no other perspective - regardless of the source. I find this particularly fanatical. It is hardly likely that MS will ever own up publicly to doing anything untoward with DRM - if this became wide spread knowledge it might very well impact negatively on them. They are almost permanently in court as it is. I don't doubt that this is where all this will end up again.

If your concerned with security TCPA is effectively the ultimate security solution. Palladium takes this much further and strays into areas such as which applications you can and cannot use, which web pages you can view, which songs or movies you can, or can't watch or listen to - and yes even which OS you use.

Palladium is being developed because people want better security and I hope it does exactly this, remember it will be optional, you don't have to use it.

Where is the optional component? MS believe they have sufficient influence to persuade almost everyone to adopt this technology over time. How optional' is it if in a couple of years you visit a web page and get an error message 'You need Palladium enabled to view this web page".This is the concern of the open source community, because although MS say that Open Source Software/OS' will work with Palladium enabled computers, much of this integration will require access to proprietary MS code... And since MS hold several very extensive patents on their palladium based technology, they are hardly likely to want to make this information available to those they see as being their main rivals. Not that open source developers would be in any rush to adopt DRM technology anyway - which is also something MS is banking on... Therefore by a slow process of adoption and strangulation, they destroy all their competition. There is nothing at 'voluntary' for the user in any of this. When practically everything you do asks you to have palladium turned on, what do you think the 'average', non computer savvy user (which represents the majority) will do? Turn the stupid thing on of course...

Also, Your wife should not be in her job if she has to go to someone else to get a computer fixed.

Keep that up dude and you really will make me mad, indeed in different circumstances.... If you want to get down and dirty maybe I should say something to insult your Wife, or girl (or inflatable sheep) too? But I'm not so low as that - and I won't stoop to your level. For your information my wife is a perfectly good network admin. It doesn't take much to stop a bunch of kids downloading porn and warez from the net, or from using stupid chat-lines during college time. She has a full technical support staff to handle any other stuff so rarely needs to become involved in any of the more complex aspects of network administration. Hell she trained from being a secretary in a year to be an admin. But I just happen to have a more in-depth understanding of computers and 12 years more experience than her. It would be nonsensical for someone with less experience not to occasionally seek the advice of a more experienced colleague. This happens all the time - although perhaps not in your world, as it seems you only need one perspective on any given subject, so long as that perspective is yours. I can't imagine you would be a very good network admin if this were the case. Anyway butt out of my personal life and I will butt out of yours. Got it???

Ahh you work with Sun too? Lol ok well its a start, though I would be curious about how much you really knew. In any case before you knock open source software, perhaps you should try it? It seems almost unnatural for someone who thinks they know so much about computers not to be messing with Open Source software too, as if you were a purist in any sense of the word, or even slightly interested in computers this is very much a natural progression of this sort of interest. Computers are not only my job, they are my interest and my passion too. If you had any heart or interest in the field, or any real understanding of open source software then the GPL would undoubtedly mean something to you as well.

But s you more or less said for yourself I guess ignorance is a temporary form of bliss. One day however you may come to agree with me on many of the points I have made here. But sadly by that time it will probably be too late to change anything.

Q

Grand Master

raid517

Posted
Posted

The one saving grace I guess is that MS will try and sell the perspective that any OS that isn't Palladium enabled is somehow insecure. But for anyone who knows anything about Linux, it will instantly be spotted for the fraud that it is. MS say they are trying to make their OS' more secure, but what they fail to acknowledge is that security is what Linux is. Linux does not just have security added on as an afterthought, Linux by its nature IS computer security. It is an OS (unlike Windows) that is built around security. From the first line until the last, it has been written with the idea of security in mind. All MS could ever really hope to do is catch up. and with the current state of affairs, it looks like it will take them many, many years to do this.

I'm sure someone will mention something about Linux viruses. So just so you know. In total there are 4 known Linux viruses, compared to literally thousands for MS OS'. Of those 4 none are harmful to the system and each can only infect systems that have been improperly configured by relative Linux/Unix n00bs. Once a system is properly configured it is impossible for these systems to come to any harm because of these viruses. That is why there is no requirement for anti-virus programs in Linux. Such programs are pointless, as Linux already incorporates multiple layers of security that are highly effective in stopping such viruses from spreading.

So any claim that is made that Linux is somehow not secure where Windows is, can safely be taken for the joke it clearly is. But my advice to anyone reading this is, if you think all of this is BS, try it first then see for yourself. Not that long ago I felt like you and the whole idea of learning something new scared me too. But I stuck at it and now I'm extremely pleased I did. I promise within 3 months of picking it up, providing you are willing to persist with it, you will wonder too what need there is in the world for a company like MS.

Freedom is an intoxicating brew. Once you have tasted it, you will not want to give it up.

Q

Grand Master

raid517

Posted
Posted (edited)

Lol ok 'next-generation secure computing base' it is then... Do you think they changed the name to stop people banding the word about so easily? :D I mean how on earth can you drop 'next-generation secure computing base' into a conversation???

Heck, they will probably find another name for it by the time its finished anyway. But its still a bad idea, whatever name they give.

Q

Edited by raid517
Grand Master

Steven

Posted
Posted
Lol ok 'next-generation secure computing base' it is then... Do you think they changed the name to stop people banding the word about so easily? :D I mean how on earth can you drop 'next-generation secure computing base' into a conversation???

Heck, they will probably find another name for it by the time its finished anyway. But its still a bad idea, whatever name they give.

Q

Actually, i don't think they'll change the name once again, it makes perfect sense.

Microsoft has CODENAMES for everything, and it was time that "Palladium" Turned into its official name "Next-Generation Secure Computing Base" that's is its objective, so i think the name, even though its long, makes perfect sense.

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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 the Control Panel, initially I did not 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 Control 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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