I do that too, but more for backup than sharing. Except my NAS is just a Linux server with Samba (Windows shared network drive).
Parallels is pretty slick. I have run into bumps, though. Somehow I had a file type in OS X associated with Notepad in Windows, so whenever I clicked on it, a VM would start up. Took a long time for the start-up, then shut-down, then fix the file association, so I turned off the "make Windows apps visible in OS X".
Glad you're getting comfortable with iPhoto, Peter. Yes, the files are accessible. I go through the same thing with iTunes. I keep my "System of Record" on my Linux server, and my laptop has a subset, and my iPod/iPhone has a subset of that. If I purchase anything through iTunes I have to copy it back to the Linux box. I usually rip from the Linux box - much more control over the format and tags. And a bigger CPU.
