Not that I've been one to defend ReadyNAS lately, but shadowfamicom, you're absolutely right you could build your own NAS box. However, the point of a NAS solution like the ReadyNAS 6, is that it's all done for you and it's all done, really, really well. I built a rocketship of a NAS a while back but found myself wasting too much time tinkering with it. When it comes to the ReadyNAS's I've deployed it's often set and forget.
That said. The NAS that I built myself has no risk of being left behind has the NAS OS matures. Something that Netgear has done to it's current NAS owners.
thillntn, I'm pretty sure that even if Netgear comes to their senses and offers an upgrade path to current owners of ReadyNAS products, they will only offer ReadyNAS OS 6 on x86.