It is hard to find a single platform to replace ClearOS that's this well put together. TrueNAS is really nice, but I ended up with some hardware compatibility issues, so I had to abandon it. I ended up running Ubuntu server and installing everything I need manually. It's not as nice as ClearOS was, but it will hold me over. I plan to keep an eye on ClearOS and hope to see things come back together. I'm not interested in the other "companies" the Clear umbrella now covers (https://www.clear.co.com/) I'm just looking for a supported server/gateway platform that's as secure, stable, reliable, and simple as ClearOS was. I completely agree with and understand their focus on the decentralized/privacy movement their organization has taken on, but I feel it's created other issues that caused ClearOS, the server/gateway platform, to fall apart. I've loved this company for somewhere around 15-20 years and it's really unfortunate I feel I need to move away. I'm hoping they are able to get past this and create the best open source server/gateway platform again. Good luck everyone. Hope to hear from you all again.

First, I ended up choosing to extend my subscription with ClearOS for one more year because I haven't found an alternative and worked all the details out yet. But, I've made good progress.

At first, I was looking at NethServer, but, it seems to have similar issues as ClearOS. I got a bad vibe after looking at it for a bit. I may be wrong, but just didn't sit well with me related to support and the like.

So, for everything except the firewall, TrueNAS has really impressed me. I've been playing around with the free version and, after following some guides, looks like it can handle all my nextcloud, OpenVPN, etc. needs. Once you understand how it works, it's actually pretty straight forward and very impressive. On my small test setup, I'm running 3 VM's and a nextCloud instance without any issues. I didn't understand how it worked at first, but googled for some "step by step" guides and it all made sense.

I'll have to run the firewall on a seperate machine (or maybe a VM in TrueNAS if I can figure that out... not even sure if possible.) But, so far, OPNsense is looking really good. Next would be pfSense. Those are the two I'm going to look at first.

I'm going to always keep my eye on ClearOS. I loved this platform. They did such a great job with everything. If they can get their stuff together, I'll switch back right away. But until then, looks like it's time for something new.

Hope this helps.

Bryan

Just got a notification that my subscription expires in 30 days. I doubt I'll be renewing. I think this is the end of my 15+ year relationship ClearOS. Time to find an alternative. It's been fun.

Gotta give props where props are due. ClearOS gets mentioned on the Joe Rogan podcast on 3/15/22. Daryl Davis & Bill Ottman discussing Minds social platform, privacy, deplatforming, free speech, etc. Great podcast. ClearOS mentioned around 45 - 47 minutes in. Related to ClearOS phone and privacy. Brief mention, but wanted to share. And as Joe held the ClearOS phone, he said said "ooo that's pretty"... win for ClearOS.

Title

@michael,

Should we expect ClearOS to continue as network gateway, file, print, mail, messaging services, and SBS platform as it has been in the past, or do you see it's future differently? Regardless what the future holds for Red Hat and CentOS, do you foresee ClearOS maintaining the basic functionality it currently has?

Thanks,
Bryan

John and Patrick,

I'm in the same boat as you guys. I have used ClarkConnect and ClearOS for the better part of 15 years I guess. I've been subscribed to ClearOS Home for probably 5 years, just to provide a little support. It's a great project and I'm very hopeful they are able to keep things moving forward. However, I think that seems unlikely. I'm sure you read Michael Proper's reply to my post in January, and I'm trying to be optimistic and believe what he said. Time will tell. Good luck to Nick. He's a great asset here and will be missed. I rarely even had to ask questions on the forum. With a little digging, you could find someone else asking your same question, and Nick had an answer. And, to go back a bit... Same to Tim Burgess, Ben Chambers, Peter Baldwin, and often with a hint of sarcasm, Tony Ellis. A great group that I've always appreciated. Sorta sounds like this is my "break up" letter

Bryan

Welcome to a New Year!,

We are excited to reiterate that there will be both ClearOS Server Major and Minor updates as more understanding of IBM's future of Red Hat is determined and better understood. That said we had many discussions (both internally and externally) around the future direction for ClearOS Server with many development teams and organizations.

Know the current ClearOS Server builds and updates are still viable and future ClearOS Server builds will have a future, it may not be as deep as prior ClearOS Server Major Releases and Minor Releases, however, ClearOS Server, is definitely a key part of the decentralized Digital Worlds future strategy (imaged) and squarely on the future Clear Companies Road Maps as many of the Clear Companies are some of the First Service Providers to the new decentralized Digital World.

ClearOS Mobile will help securely connect (via ClearLIFE Decentralization - cryptographically (12 words)) to ClearOS Server nodes around the world.

Thank you for continuing to support others as they utilize ClearOS Server over the years!

The future is bright. United, we can do anything!

Learn more about the different versions of ClearOS here:
www.clearos.com
www.clearos.app

Learn more about the related Clear Companies here:
www.clearcenter.com
www.clearcellular.org

Learn more about the short term strategy here:
www.clear.co.com

Lear more about the long term strategy here:
www.digitalworld.earth

Thanks for the update Michael. It reassuring to hear that you all plan to keep ClearOS active. There are so many outdates pages on the www.clearos.com site, it gives the appearance the project has been abandoned. It may be worthwhile to remove the outdated content and lighten the site up. Make it a smaller, simpler site to manage. Thanks again.

Is ClearOS still under active development?

Is ClearOS still under active development? The Clear brand has changed quite a bit over the 15+ years I've used their software (ClarkConnect, then ClearOS.) The website and forums seem to be dwilding. Is ClearOS still a viable option for long-term personal and professional deployments?

Looks like we've made some progress.
I haven't passed any real traffic through it, but it's working.
Gonna stress it a bit to be sure it's stable then gonna reload it and put it in production.
I'll post back here as I make progress.

I chose this board as a COVID tinkering project.
It's got everything I was looking for.
Inexpensive, compact, quiet, runs pretty cool, dual NIC, NVMe, SATA, up to 32gb DDR4, x86 SBC.
And... I learned a little bit thanks to you guys
Gonna replace my old COS gateway / minecraft server.
Only down side so far is the 3 LEDs are extremely bright... so, not ideal in a bedroom... as my wife has pointed out.
Gonna have to get creative with the electrical tape to fix those LEDs.

Can't thank you guys enough.