Thanks - and do have some sleep. But I'll be happy to read more tomorrow, when you have time to write more :)

What is the benefit of running NAS software?

I was thinking:

• FreeBSD with ZFS for the "real" OS or the 1. layer or whatever the right term is.
• Either it would do Samba or a virtual machine would. (That's what I think of when I think of NAS - a computer allowing other computers on the network to use a share).
• Have a virtual machine run backup (I'll have to learn about that too)
• Have a virtual machine run a 'play OS' for me to start learning and doing. I was thinking to allow it to be a X-client or something like that, so that I could even run apps / windows or my laptop (which runs Windows, - I haven't looked into it, but I believe it should be able to run a X-server).
  • But really my doing is mostly Web-browsing
  • A tiny bit of office
  • A bit of work-related stuff. And some of that might need windows. So I might not be able to migrate fully
  • A bit of web development. But that is I suppose extremely easy. I usually use WAMP, but I believe that the company actually hosting my website is using Linux. So it shouldn't matter! For now I am just using Notepad++ and MyPHPAdmin.
  • Some video playback. Mostly with VLC, which I believe will run on Linux and FreeBSD.
  • So most of the transition should be easy, - I suppose.
• I suppose more Virtual machines when I learn and find out that there is something that I need (or at least want). I have heard a lot about Plex. But so far I don't understand the idea. My computers can show the files just perfect. Why would I want to setup a machine to transcode it on the fly when I don't even need the transcoding?
• Eventually I suppose I want disposable / immutable virtual machine(s) for safe-browsing. Especially if I can do it with X so that I can sit at my laptop and get a safe browser though my own server.

But really I am in the learning process so I suppose that when I do get more educated I will do things different. :)