Last year I wanted to expose part of my existing Ubuntu server as a NAS for family photos and videos.
Most popular solutions (TrueNAS, OMV, Unraid) are great — but they expect to be the OS.

That works well if your machine is a NAS.
But mine already ran Docker containers, databases, and other services.

Reinstalling everything just to add a NAS layer felt… heavy.

That’s when I thought:

Why can’t a NAS just be a service?

So I Built PlainNAS

PlainNAS is a NAS that runs like any other Linux service.

Not a custom OS.
Not a full system management panel.
Just a focused NAS layer.

What it does:

• Runs on an existing Linux system

• Web UI to browse files, photos, videos, and music

• Media scanning & thumbnails

• LAN discovery (plainnas.local)

• Optional SMB sharing

• Written in Go (single binary, low overhead)

What it intentionally does not try to be:

• A full server admin UI

• A container orchestration layer

• An app store platform

Design Philosophy

Your data stays in normal directories.
PlainNAS is just another systemd service.

No vendor formats.
No OS replacement.
No lock-in.

If you already run Linux and just want a simple way to:

• browse photos

• stream videos

• organize personal data

without turning your machine into a dedicated NAS OS, this might be useful.

🔗 GitHub: