I also tried TrueNAS scale once (but I think at the time it was quite new so maybe not how it is now) and didn’t like it either so I won’t speak about that.

If it were literally just for network storage and nothing else I guess the way to go might just be to hook up a usb drive to ones router (if it supports that). So most people probably do want slightly more or at least the option to expand capabilities without having to fundamentally change their setup.

But in general I would say that yes, the web interface is definitely part of the appeal. I think what something like Openmediavault offers is that someone else chooses sensible presets, it gives an easy to use gui that allows oneself to get stuff done without any major technical knowledge, and it also creates a community with a shared similar setup that can offer support.

I guess it depends on what one wants from the server. Of course you can have a plain Debian or whatever installation and do everything yourself. But for most, especially the less technical knowledgeable, it is nice to have some interface for setup and maintenance stuff.

I guess if you want specific recommendations you need to define your needs and requirements a bit more.

Since I was wondering if Cockpit is an option for immutable distros I stumbled on this video, which seems to suggest it might since it is used on one there. So I guess you could pick your favorite immutable distros and see if Cockpit works to have a easy gui for managing the server stuff.

You could of course also go for something like NixOS and make everything declarative.

For me Openmediavault was easy to set up and just works for the little stuff I want it to do.

I (very much an amateur) briefly tried TueNAS scale in the past and didn’t like how they did apps. So I switched to Openmediavault, which since then has served me very well.

With a plugin I could easily add my zfs raid and I use their build in docker compose gui to run the few programs I need.

I didn’t try out others, but there are more options. CasaOS and yunohost already got mentioned, there is also Cosmos or just running a basic server with e.g Debian and maybe adding Cockpit for some management gui.

Since I just saw this in the self-host weekly post:

Do not upgrade to 13.0.0

Seems like there is a bug and one should use 13.0.1

See here