Another fork has brought CORE to FreeBSD 15.1:
edit: corrected that the initial release FreeCORE 15.0 actually runs on FreeBSD 15.1
Look good–the in-place upgrade is particularly attractive. May want to think about moving my folks’ NAS to this, rather than sidegrading to SCALE. Any idea whether a sidegrade to SCALE from FreeCORE would be possible?
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No idea. I saw an announcement on STH forum; I’m not affiliated with the FreeCORE team.
I suspect that sidegrading from Linux to FreeBSD is not possible, but that SCALE/CE pools would hopefully import manually, OpenZFS version permitting.
I wouldn’t think so, but I’m wondering about going in the opposite direction. Worst case, I guess, I could save the 13.3 config file and upload it to SCALE if/when I decide to make that switch.
This is quite interesting. People who are comfortable with TrueNAS CORE may like this. I am downloading the iso to perform a fresh install and test it out.
The instructions for migrating from TrueNAS 13.3 to FreeCORE are pretty straight forward which is nice. Unfortunately I will not be able to give it a good test until I have completed my move later next week when I have a server I can load up with TrueNAS 13.3 and then try the upgrade, and also try to install as a new install using a previous TrueNAS CORE pool.
The change log does depict some significant changes which should be evaluated before blindly making the leap.
Change Log:
FreeCORE-15.0-RELEASE
added
Security keys (WebAuthn) as a second factor for web interface logins
One-time passwords at local and serial console logins
The DRM graphics driver (drm-66-kmod), which lets jails share the host GPU for rendering
rar2fs, which presents RAR archives as a read-only filesystem
A persistent return to the previously configured 13.3 state after an in-place upgrade, with visible retained-space accounting and manual removal
changed
The hidden web terminal is fixed and restored
OpenVPN is replaced by WireGuard
removed
Vendor telemetry, entirely rather than disabled
The enterprise-licensed features: failover, KMIP, Fibre Channel, enclosure management, proactive support and TrueCommand Cloud
component 13.3 15.0
FreeBSD base 13.3-RELEASE-p4 15.1-RELEASE-p2
OpenZFS 2.1.14 2.4.2
Python 3.9 3.11
rsync 3.2.7 3.4.4
Web UI (Angular) 9.1.1 15.2.10
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Found it yesterday, by accident and came here to find out more about it.
Any clue who is behind it? Where it’s coming from…?
freecoredev
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Joined on Aug 8, 2026
Who is the unsung hero, I wonder?
He/She goes by “freecore” on STH, where I first found out about FreeCORE, and I guess that’s about all we are allowed to know.
Anyway, 15.0-U1.1 is out, with a fix for iocage update, so it’s time to sing to thank our hero. 
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On the BSDnas is also very little info, which to me is a bit of a strange situation.
Kinda like to get a feel for the project and who’s in on it.
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FreeCORE is already ahead of BSDnas. BSDnas would do better to just join the FreeCORE efforts. Fragmentation only hurts at this point. Either make a new product or join the fork that already has work to show for its effort. There’s no reason for another fork.
With FreeCORE 15.0-U1.1, you can have working software via jails until 2030 when FreeBSD 15 goes EOL. It’s basically a non-trademarked TrueNAS Core, with the same UI and features (and unaddressed bugs) as Core 13.3, but with OpenZFS 2.4.2, FreeBSD 15.1 (with 15.x jails), and other upstream adoptions, such as Samba and NFS.
Whether you plan to stick with a “TrueNAS-like” FreeBSD or switch to managing your own FreeBSD server with WebZFS, Sylve, and Webmin, at least FreeCORE gives you until 2030 to make that decision.
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To me it seems so pointless, too.
And makes me question both projects.
A word from the devs why they don’t would be great.
Just a simple polite statement, not offending the other project/dev.
The FreeCORE dev says he invites anyone to join the project, even the BSDnas devs. I think they should. He has an issue tracker and code repos and is actively finding bugs on his own and fixing them.
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It’s not a big difference, but I do like the light refresh to the GUI. I’d be nice if he could backport Cloudflare and a few others to the ACME DNS authenticators.
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