Thanks for the comments, CV.
I'm still trying to clean up my library, too. It's pretty frustrating, because I am - by nature - a pretty organized person. My job duties are primarily in database management. I considered an MS in Library Science. Yet, I can't seem to get everything tagged just right and acquire all the images I need. It's supposed to be "fun" not "work", right?
I've considered getting an NAS, but just using USB drives or old desktops has always seemed both cheaper and more powerful to me. My son is currently using the oldest desktop in the house (socket 939, baby!), which is in a beautiful case and actually started life in the living room many years ago. It would be PERFECT for a vortexbox solution. So, my quandary becomes when to spend the money and whether to buy him a new desktop or a laptop, I guess.
At least initially, I'm just going to load squeezeserver on the Vista Core2 Duo that serves as my daughter's desktop and our fileserver.
I suspect most of my short-term work will be in cleaning things up rather than system architecture.
I'm not as optimistic as you are about the great interface on the receiver. I think it's a lifestyle thing. For some reason, I just really don't want to HAVE to have the TV on when I'm listening to music. Now, if the receiver had a built-in SB or other streaming client that you could control from an iPad... I guess that's "the thing" for me - controlling the music from an iPad. It's kind of like our previous discussions about Android Tablets, except I finally drank the kool-aid.
If all these technology chips keep falling at my house, I will also have a "surplus" Zotac ZBox which is currently running Ubuntu. It would also make a fine candidate for Vortexbox, but all the stuff that makes that configuration sing would need to be external via USB (the optical drive, the big storage). I'm not sure how that would work. I understand you can solve these kinds of problems with time and money.
I'll keep learning and I will report back.
