NAS - windows embedded or not?

[Dunk3000]

Hi guys,
apologies if this question is remedial in nature but I am new to all this...

I am building a home network so that I can share all my media files to every room. I have decided that the best way to do this will be via a network drive so i will not need to have a computer switched on all the time.

While looking around I have noticed that some drives have windows embedded and some do not. What are the advantages, if any, to having an embedded operating system?

Cheers,

 

[Iceblue]

Most of the small NAS "appliances" intended for home or small office use do not have Windows embedded; they will typically have Linux embedded, but unless you are intending on hacking the system, you generally do not need to care about what OS is on the inside. One of the advantages of the NAS devices is their simple functional design - they are there for a limited function - to provide storage to the network, so the complexity of general purpose OS's like Windows can be avoided or hidden.