I have expressed my love for Qnap earlier and today when I got to try the Beta version of Qnaps QTS 4.0 firmware, it made me fall in love with my machine again. I am sure the changes are more than just skin deep, but what caught my immediate attention was the change in the user interface. I will write more as I see what has changed under the hood.
The new inteface has a conventional desktop feel. You can drag and drop icons from one place to another, change the wall paper, search for features and quickly access the system status and statistics. New notifications show up on the main screen along with running tasks and any external device connected.
It’s a much cleaner interface but all the funcations are quickly accessible. It’s AJAX based and loads fast.
The interface has a Dektop area on which you can drag and drop frequetly used applications, one quick search area, and a Dashboard button.
Clicking on Dashboard shows you a quick summary of the system state like Memory , CPU usage, Hard drive health etc. Clicking on Start gives you access to many programs.
I found search feature to be most convenient. I tried searching for RAID, firmware, FTP and RTRR and everytime the seachbox faithfully returned relevant links each time. No more going through myriad menu of options to find a function. .
If you still like to look at all the features your NAS offers you, you can click on Control Panel and it presents you a list of all the features.
I will be playing around more with the beta version, to see what has changed under the hood and post more details as I find them. The new stations like photo station, video station etc look very promising.