1.4 Operating System Selection

Posted by JTSF at Thursday, May 30, 2013 Read our previous post

The NAS operating system will be installed on a separate drive; either a USB thumbdrive or a 2.5" HDD.  So which OS do I go for? This is where it gets interesting...

- The most popular free OS for NAS is FreeNAS.
- The most popular OS among off shelve solutions is Synology DSM due to it large bundle of apps.
- The most anonymous and potential dark horse is U-NAS OS


FreeNAS
It's free and popular among self built NAS. Simple GUI with ongoing developments. The highlight of FreeNAS is it's ZFS RAID feature which I will cover on the next topic.

Synology DSM
Synology DSM needs no introduction, most favored OS among most users. Much thanks to the remarkable work from the guys who recompiled DSM source code, it is proven that DSM can be installed on non Synology appliances. However, you have to keep it to yourself that it is an unlicensed, unsupported installation.

U-NAS
I only came across this OS after purchasing the U-NAS enclosure. Most of our readers here wouldn't have heard of it before as well.
- Do you find the graphical interface familiar? =)
- How reliable are China applications?
Well, to toy it around for the price of SGD$20 seems like a fair deal, so I grabbed it together with the NAS enclosure. You can have a feel of the OS here,

Conclusion
To be honest, I wouldn't know which OS suits my requirement and liking till I experience it.

So let's compare and review all 3.

Stay tuned for more OS comparison and reviews during Phase 3.