@piggo I solved that very same problem with QNAP TS-251+ with pimped up RAM. I figured I do not have time and energy to fiddle with half-assed home-brewed solutions of mine and this just works. Especially because I am more fond of LXC than Docker and QNAP Container Station gives me that way all the freedom I need to play. Virtualization Station is a bit heavyweight for any of my home purposes.
@piggo That’s not the right way to see what this can do for you. Yes, QNAP reimplemented craploads of things and often it has a good quality (backup solutions, VPN/networking mgmt/config/etc), though sometimes not (nextcloud, media stuff, etc.) Applications-wise you shall look at 3rd party packages available for this. Have a peek here: https://www.qnapclub.eu/en. You get anything your heart desires and more. And of course the device runs some custom version of linux and you get shell access too, so you can fix (break?) whatever you need - they just do not advertise it too openly.
their "NAS as a PC" is also interesting, I guess it means is they simply put a HDMI port on it and it can run X11.. maybe it would be enough to really use as a computer too
Re packages: yes. These are normal packages QNAP system understands. In the official interface there’s an option to install 3rd party package repositories and then you install and update these normally. The same as installing a PPA on an Ubuntu-based OS.
Re NAS as a PC: yes, that is a thing too. I have it hooked to a TV (because Kodi of course) and a keyboard + mouse dongle. The whole thing has something called HDMI apps and then you simply use the whole thing as a full-fledged computer, just the Desktop UI is somewhat spartan and less featured than say GNOME, or KDE Plasma. Yet, very usable. I do not use it in that mode - as I do not need it, but it’s build so that you can run your whole office on it.
Probably the best 3rd-party apps for the thing are things like ownCloud, Kodi and then plethora of home automation tools (not speaking about Borg and their Hybrid Mount - which is just nice if you hook it up with something like Backblaze, or such) . Also QNAP builds these devices to natively support surveillance tech - a set of IP cams to store home/shop/whatever surveillance videos. So if that’s a thing for you, it’s well integrated too.
@piggo I sound like a QNAP sales rep. Anyhow, for some years I was trying to figure out a home server/storage/… for myself and after wasting zillions of hours on it and considering building an HPC solution myself, I decided to take the plunge on this and I do not regret. For my needs works fine. It’s of course not all roses sometimes, but that’s OK. After 2+ years of ownership so far I did not regret for a moment.
What I also like is that I have a VPN server (QNAP app) on it and they have Dynamic DNS sorted well, so accessing this from outside of home is super easy. And not speaking yet about they myQnapCloud service which makes it even easier.
I shall stop with this advertisement…
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