Does it have ZFS? No, probably, because it's Linux. Which means your files can be silently corrupted and you won't know about it 'till it's too late.
I'm sorry, we're looking at things for the long haul, and unreliable filesystems based on Windows or Linux just won't cut it.

I think Rapidshare has the best deal (infinite storage).
However, I would encrypt files first.

I don't know why, but something tells me /. has been invaded by a whole bunch of Synology marketing people.

C'mon! Anyone who's promoting some shitty Linux-based tech with no ZFS is actually NOT HELPING the OP!

This is Linux-based old tech because there's no support for ZFS (Zettabyte File System), which is today's standard for this type of thing. How lame. the OP doesn't know it, but he wants a ZFS filesystem because, in the long haul, it can counterweight - amongst other things - silent data corruption (it's going on, but your hardware diagnostics says everything's OK).

Besides, the OP said he and his wife had Macs, and since Snow Leopard (10.6), Macs support ZFS. The old Mac just needs a memory upgrade to support Snow Leopard, probably.

Get a NAS box with FreeBSD inside (check out: www.freenas.org)

Since the OP is not one of the typical /. nerds, here's a nice You Tube video, by the nice msknight5, that explains why you need ZFS: ZFS - Home server - Why? (NB: she goes on a little rant about DVD, DRM, etc., but just bear with it).

Don't settle for less. Too bad for users of the lame Linux that their beloved GPL does not allow it on their kernel.

Linux is backed by corporations that sell per-seat licenses.
Linux was just a pawn to drive Sun Microsystems out of business.
Ask Red Hat to do it.

On Mac OS X, Unix is a whole lot of Objective-C.
It has the semantics of the purest of OO languages (Smalltalk), but you can mix and match with C. That allows for speed and fast development without the pain and the bugs. It's probably the number one factor for the success of Mac OS as the number 1 Unix out there for users (power users included). No, actually, number 1 OS, period.
If you ask me, Steve Jobs was wright.

One of the things I like about FreeBSD is their openess to languages (in contrast to OpenBSD, who think C is the only language around...)
Throughout the years, FreeBSD developers reached out for what they thought were the best languages for the job: Modula-3 (for cvsup, though now deprecated), Forth on the boot loader (ideal, right? Can drop you into a little Forth shell), Ruby for ports infrastructure. In that way, they are not prejudiced about programming languages. Users contribute a great deal too. All the things you get in Debian (lots of languages).

FreeBSD developers also have ported important innovations that are open-sourced but lacking in Linux, because of pure ideology (the GPL doesn't play well with others): Apple's Grand Central Dispatch (a framework that implements concurrency *correctly*), and LLVM (which as a side effect, brings C blocks (effectively, closures for C).

Additionally, many vendors support FreeBSD. I, for instance, run Eiffel on FreeBSD (for the world's best introduction to Object Oriented Programming: A Touch of class. Common Lisp has vendors that support FreeBSD (LispWorks, Franz), and so has Smalltalk (Cincom, Smalltalk/X). All these vendors have free products and commercial support.

There's nothing stopping anyone from doing whatever they want with C++ on FreeBSD. But seriously, C++? Shouldn't you be looking at D?

That was one hell of a good tip, dude!

...which is another way of saying: the GOOG shoots itself in the foot - ALL THE TIME!

What, are you stupid, or what? There was other stuff the decided to phase out, just like that, like the SmartRescheduler.

You must be one of those f*ing CSS/JavaScript-only kids. You go write a scheduling application, now, for Calendar. Tip: retake your Linear Algebra classes, as well as your Optimization classes. Oh you never took those, that's why you think what Google does is nothing! (just practically blow up everything, on everyone's faces).

They are?! People are moving away form Apple?!!

Gee whiz, why, thank you, Mr. Slashdot business analyst, you must one of those recommending selling Apple stock! Oh, you're so bright!

Let me put it to you in writing: Google (e.g., Android) is beginning to look really, really bad. If they keep being ruthless to developers (and mobile phone consumers), one day people are going to start thinking that they would do better to spend on a company that really cares about its consumer experience (e.g., Apple).

Sorry, not a fanboy, just a realist.

Should we create a Google Haters Usenet newsgroups? Oh, wait, Google practically killed Usenet (rampant spamming).

'Coz, boy, am I hating Google now!

And, BTW, all those fucked-brain so-called "business analysts" you see on, say, Bloomberg, saying "open is better", "Android will win". Do they even have a clue about how ruthless The GOOG is??? (Answer: no, they're clueless).

They're doing like they do with everything they stick their noses in that's non-search related: they are very *violent* and *aggressive* on how they treat consumers of their products. They just leave you by the wayside. Fuck that! Better stick to iPhone development.

In fact, this is getting to be a hallmark of the way Google conducts business. Look at Android. It's almost guaranteed that your apps won't upgrade on Google Play, unless you keep up with the latest Samsung tablet (yeah, the other just won't do, I'm afraid).

Honestly, I'm losing my faith in them. Their business practices are beginning to look...evil. Hey, Google, whatever happened to "don't be evil"?

I guess I'm gonna go read that Objective C book in the reading queue after all.

Now, the question is imperative: can we trust Google as a platform we want to develop on, when they zap their own stuff, willy-nilly, *periodically* ???!!!
(They have a date for that ??!!!)

Thanks Google. As I was about to schedule a meeting with an associate, in order to develop a product that involves one of you now-dead features, I now realize you really are a liability.

Fuck you very much Google.

PS: More and more I realize the errors of my ways: I should stick with Apple. They're serious. You're not.

Crypto: 0
                    As received by: Transceiver Relay03 at Relay
                    Language path: Cloudmark->Triskweline, SjK units
                    [Cloudmark is a High Beyond trade language. Despite
                    colloquial rendering, only core meaning is guaranteed.]
                    From: Transcendent Bafflements Trading Union at Cloud Center
                    Subject: Matter of life and death
                    Summary: Arbitration Arts has fallen to Straumli Perversion
                    via a Net attack. Use Middle Beyond relays till emergency
                    passes!
            Key phrases: Net attack, scale interstellar warfare, Straumli
                    Perversion
  Distribution:
                    War Trackers Interest Group, Threats Interest Group, Homo
                    Sapiens Interest Group
Date: 61.12 days since the fall of Straumli Realm
Text of message:
WARNING! The site identifying itself as Arbitration Arts is now
controlled by the Straumli Perversion. The Arts' recent advertisement
of communications services is a deadly trick. In fact we have good
evidence that the Perversion used sapient Net packets to invade and
disable the Arts' defenses. Large portions of the Arts now appear to be
under direct control of the Straumli Power. Parts of the Arts that were
not infected in the initial invasion have been destroyed by the
converted portions: Fly-throughs show several stellifications.
What can be done: If during the last thousand seconds, you have
received any High Beyond protocol packets from "Arbitration Arts",
discard them at once. If they have been processed (then chances are
it is the Perversion who is reading this message and with a [broad smile]),
  then the processing site and all locally netted sites must be
physically destroyed at once. We realize that this means the
destruction of solar systems, but consider the alternative. You are
under Transcendent attack.
If you survive the initial peril (the next thirty hours or so), then
there are obvious procedures that can give relative safety: Do not
accept High Beyond protocol packets. At the very least, route all
communications through Middle Beyond sites, with translation down to,
and then up from, local trade languages.
For the longer term: It's obvious that an extraordinarily powerful
Class Two Perversion has bloomed in our region of the galaxy. For the
next thirteen years or so, all advanced civilizations near us will be
in great danger.
If we can identify the background of the current perversion, we may
discover its weaknesses and a feasible defense. Class Two Perversions
all involve a deformed Power that creates symbiotic structures in the
High Beyond -- but there is enormous variety of origins. Some are
poorly-formed jokes told by Powers no longer on the scene. Others are
weapons built by the newly transcendent and never properly disarmed.
The immediate source of this danger is well-documented: a species
recently up from the Middle Beyond, Homo sapiens, founded Straumli
Realm. We are inclined to believe the theory proposed in messages
[...], namely that Straumli researchers experimented with something in
Shortcuts, and that the recipe was a self-booting evil from an earlier
time. One possibility: Some loser from long ago planted how-to's on the
Net (or in some lost archive) for the use of its own descendants. Thus,
we are interested in any information related to Homo sapiens.

-- Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep