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Dear Logitech and SlimDevices Staff, In my humble opinion, you are squandering an opportunity. The SB3 and the new Duet are great products. I have spread the gospel about the SqueezeBox to my large circle of friends (if you have read The Tipping Point, you could call me a Connector) and I would love to get deeper into the SlimDevices world (new controller, Transporter, etc). But I and many of my friends are adamant about running SqueezeCenter through an NAS, not through our PCs. In the name of energy efficiency, speed, and performance, having a PC in the middle is just that, an unnecessary middleman that sucks away energy, money, and performance. There are lots of other reasons to run SB3 software on an NAS and Im sure you know most of them. Here is where your opportunity is being lost. I have been reading these forums for two months trying to figure out which NAS devices run SlimServer and I am ready to hang myself. I found that, if I were a Linux guru, I could spend many hours installing esoteric software from an independent coder (with no support or warranty) on a Linkstation or a few other NAS devices. I learned that Infrant offered a SlimServer-ready NAS which sounds fantastic but was nowhere near plug and play for consumers. And I learned that in general, SlimServer runs much more efficiently on Linux machines, which all but eliminates my Windows NAS choices. In short, I have no idea what to buy and your company is not helping me at all. And now that SC7 is required, I am starting all over and finding that the answer to my question is mostly, Sorry, unless you are a coder genius, stick with your PC. Why cant Logitech make the SqueezeBox and its cousins user-friendly enough for a critical mass consumer audience? I highly respect all the veterans in the forums, and their knowledge of the products is extraordinary. But they are a tiny fraction of your potential audience. What strikes me more is the constant call for help from new users and novices like me. After reading the beginners forum for a month, its painfully clear that most users do not understand that they need to run a PC to listen to their music and when they discover this, they have all sorts of problems pulling files from external hard drives. Everyone wants to know what NAS drives work best, and everyone seems entirely perplexed about what to do. The choices for NAS drives are overwhelming and the fact that Logitech/SD hardly says a word about which drives are compatible doesnt relieve the pain. Plus, the fact that Logitech/SD built a few partnerships and then simply stopped communicating about them makes it all the more frustrating. I read that QNAP offered the TS-209 with SlimServer pre-installed and ready to play. But neither of your web sites say anything about this. Same thing for Infrant. Now I hear that there may be a new module for Infrant, but I didnt hear this from Logitech, I heard it through the forums which makes me wonder if its really true and when it will happen (not to mention the quality and performance of any fix). I understand that you leave a lot of the aftermarket modules to freelancers and software geeks, but why leave it to them? Most of their solutions are not easy to use (although Im sure they work great for software geniuses). Why not take steps yourself to make SC7 easy enough to install on a handful of NAS drives right out of the box? The best advice I got from the forums were, Keep your money in your pocket until hard drive companies start releasing versions with SC7. But even then, I suspect they wont be plug and play and they wont be under any endorsement or even compatibility wink wink from Logitech. Ideally, novices would like to know Logitechs position on using NAS devices, which ones are best suited, which ones you work directly with, and exactly how to get SC7 on those drives. At the very least, Logitech should communicate regularly to its audience and tell us what youre thinking. If your current thoughts are, Were mulling it over, well get back to you,, then at least we know youre not ignoring us. If your current thoughts are, Were working with select manufacturers and well let you know when we know, thats good information. If you have specific information about new installs coming soon, please let us know. You dont even have to name names or dates, but were all sitting here in the dark, making guesses. Speculating and doing detective work can be fun, but for those of us who just want to listen to high-quality music around the house, were not as interested in the game-playing and the corporate secrecy. Help us evangelize your products by telling us about the products! Yours truly, Sick-of-reading-about-Linux-installs-and-NAS-pros-and-cons-and-rumors-about-new-SC7-modules -- Omeriah ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Omeriah's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10330 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=43198
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