Gecos AnalyticsRecently we did research on open source NAS systems for a client. There were plenty of options, but only a few stood out as fairly well maintained and more or less modern: TrueNAS, OpenMediaVault and Rockstor.
1/n
TrueNAS is a NAS-focused open source distribution maintained by iXsystems, a U.S. company. TrueNAS has historically been built on top of FreeBSD, but the migration to Linux has been going on for a while:
https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/truenas_abandons_freebsd/
Anecdotes on the Internet seem to indicate the TrueNAS is the most popular NAS distro for the "do it yourself" types.
2/n
iXsystems offers many commercial NAS devices that use the open source TrueNAS distribution. However, from a digital sovereignty perspective such devices are a potential risk as they are built by an U.S.-based company. Moreover, they are fairly enterprisey and expensive compared to devices rom "household vendors" such as Synology and QNAP.
3/n
OpenMediaVault is a media server-oriented Linux distribution that can also serve as a NAS system. Its development is community-driven, but there is only one core developer from Germany. OpenMediaVault seems like a reasonable option for a home media server, but feels a bit outdated and is probably not the best option for a NAS server.
4/n
Rockstor is an open source NAS distribution based on OpenSUSE Linux. Its developers are based on Portugal and development is community-driven but there is some commercial support available for those who need it. Rockstor feels pretty modern and well-maintained and is not tied to any single company.
5/n
TrueNAS devices can be bought from iXsystems, but that means buying a devices from an U.S. vendor, which is not optimal from digital sovereignty perspective.
Broadberry Data Systems, an UK-based company with multiple offices around the world offers Rockstor-based storage servers in the enterprise price range.
OpenMediaVault-based devices don't seem to be available at all.
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#digitalsovereignty #truenas #rockstor #openmediavault #opensource
If you want a sovereign NAS it is usually best to build your own. That way you know what you're getting and can pick between two good NAS distro options: TrueNAS and Rockstor. While there are other options these two stand out from the crowd.
If you want a commercial open source device from Europe then buying a Rockstor system from Broadberry Data Systems seem to be pretty much the only option.
7/n