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NAS vendors use a variety of operating systems to make their appliances perform magic. Some vendors, Maxtor is one, use a cut-down version of Windows 2000, specifically designed for appliances by Microsoft. Other companies, including NSS and Network Appliance, have tailored their kernels and OSes to their specifications. The OS from NSS is so small it fits on a single 1.44-MB floppy drive. And some other companies have customized versions of FreeBSD or Linux as their software engines for NAS. NAS servers offer Unix NFS shares and Windows CIFS shares, and as long as the software engine handles those well, you're golden.

The type of NAS engine running your appliance does matter. If the company is making the kernel, make sure it'll stay on that path and have the resources to keep on keepin' on. There is a great deal of cost savings when using an existing OS kernel. However, consider the performance benefits of using a homegrown OS. Make sure you're comfortable with the OS running at the heart of your NAS device. If you don't like the way Microsoft Windows handles NFS connections, don't buy a NAS that uses Windows. If you don't like Samba for Windows sharing support, be careful with your Linux kernel-based devices. Make an informed choice and ask the vendor what's under the hood. Understanding what's involved and being comfortable with it is often half the battle.