# TrueNAS CORE

5 Hacker News commenters recommended TrueNAS CORE and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free NAS operating system built on FreeBSD that a few people were glad to see; the most common caveat is withheld source and build scripts, and many are moving to Linux.

## Why people recommend it

- Free option some had hoped for (1 comments): "I gave up on any hope that something like this would come along" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494950))
- Good fit if FreeBSD matters (1 comments): "this is a good option if FreeBSD is important to you" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494961))

## What people warn about

- Withholds source and build scripts (7 comments): "They do not give all of the code. If you have an object, and don't have everything needed to reproduce the object, then you have not been given the source to the object." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49495713)) "recently stopped publishing their build scripts, intentionally making it harder to build their open source code" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494983)) "They chose to base their enterprise on the work of others, only to pull the ladder up behind them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49496296))
- Users switching to Linux (3 comments): "choosing to use something else rather than reward trunas for doing something I don't like" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500501)) "switching from FreeBSD to Linux twice (TrueNAS CORE -> TrueNAS SCALE" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46714295)) "Using TrueNAS CORE and OpnSense. Switch to Linux" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47408432))
- Few reasons to pick FreeBSD (2 comments): "I don't see why you'd use FreeBSD if you don't have a very specific reason" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49496525)) "it was the old freebsd base and not the |inux future" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49495965))
- Core deprecated, stuck on FreeBSD 13 (2 comments): "Core is deprecated and stuck on freebsd 13" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45780116)) "Unfortunately trunas core is dead now." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47129491))

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "TrueNAS CORE", https://hackerapproved.com/p/truenas-core/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).