[LUAU] Anyone use a Linksys NSLU2? USB hard disk drives are FOSS friendly?

[Julian Yap]

Things are starting to get unwieldy and the amount of HD storage
required for files which can be offloaded (namely music, photos) has
increased to the point where I need to consider other storage options.
Basically I want a cheap NAS (and that cheap to run, so not a PC).

Anyone use a Linksys NSLU2?  Any good?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSLU2

Recommend any of the alternative firmwares on this site over any of the
others?
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/

I'm thinking of getting one of these and a 'Sunday paper brochure
insert' USB hard disk drive.

Another question is, do USB hard disk drives require any Windows/Mac
software to be operational?  In other words, are they all pretty much
Free Software OS friendly?

~ Julian