I learned a ton of Linux/BSD basics just from experimenting with file server distros like FreeNAS during my college years. I had an old PC with a terabyte of storage (in 2007 that was a lot) that me and my roommates would dump all our torrented movies and TV shows on, and connect our computers to that over the LAN whenever we wanted to watch something.
A buddy of mine had a modded original Xbox with XBMC (the precursor to Kodi) on it, and he had it connected to our server. Seeing those movie files being played on a TV as if they were a DVD was pretty mindblowing in those days.
I learned a ton of Linux/BSD basics just from experimenting with file server distros like FreeNAS during my college years. I had an old PC with a terabyte of storage (in 2007 that was a lot) that me and my roommates would dump all our torrented movies and TV shows on, and connect our computers to that over the LAN whenever we wanted to watch something.
A buddy of mine had a modded original Xbox with XBMC (the precursor to Kodi) on it, and he had it connected to our server. Seeing those movie files being played on a TV as if they were a DVD was pretty mindblowing in those days.