Wow, thanks for that in-depth reply…much appreciated.
To answer your question, I don’t think I need to see the desktop but it’s an interesting add-on if it’s not too difficult.
I actually have a synology NAS, which I can access remotely but I have some misgivings about having all my data (albeit not very interesting, photos etc) connected to the www. So I was thinking about just having that on an internal LAN, separate from the LAN which is connected to the web? Hence, I’d want something quite simple (RPi+USB stick?) if I needed to access some files from abroad.
I don’t think I need a traditional ‘Cloud’ server (i.e. one that synchronises files across devices), but I do like the sound of open source alternatives like Syncthing that use bit torrent.
Maybe something like Owncloud would be the best option, as I don’t really need to use the RPi as a ‘desktop’ computer at home anyway.
Again, thanks so much for sharing your expertise!
Rich.