I think the point here is that no-one uploads / enters a password/phrase/file.
Whatever you enter on the keyboard is hashed and the hash is sent. Depending on the protocol, sometimes it's time limited so no-one can record the network traffic and resend the data (replay attack)
Files (SSH keys, certificates, etc) are checked against a (usually) asymetric key exchange algorithm, so they can only compare what's sent if they have the corresponding key to decrypt the cipher.
The length of the password (or file) is basically meaningless. It's just how long it'll take someone to guess it (brute-force), but as the saying goes, you don't break into a house through the door, you go through Windows... ie the weakest link.
In your concept, the weakest link is the meatware: humans. We need ease of use, so, someone will store that file and it'll be compromised, so 64b, 128b or 512b doesn't matter, if they have the file, they're in.
I compare this with other skills like growing plants... "keep watering them" is not good advice for cacti...
A lot of Windows users have to search for solutions which you probably know. And there's still advice out there to "open regedit..." (do you understand the difference between HKLM and HKCU?)
Windows is like Linux, but someone's taken away all choice: 1 desktop GUI, 1 filesystem (mostly), etc. so there's usually only 1 answer.
Pressing the volume key should work as it's been the same for decades. Yet, why can't I move the taskbar to the top of the screen in Win11 now?
You'll get there with Mint Cinnamon, but someone else on Mint Xfce will have to do something different, and learn different things yet you'll still both learn about apt even if you try to only use the gui to update your systems.
Over time the venn diagram of advice becomes clearer and you find what advice works for you (ie cli vs gui) and you learn why some plants need water and others don't.
My pfSense box has the username & password, so the router really is just being used as a dumb modem (I used to use Draytek modems)...
... but...
The router's diagnostics will show the DSL details, so you can check if your external connection is ok (ie OSI Layer1), but it will always think it's offline.
So once you get your OPNSense setup and working, have a look around the Fritz diagnostics and get comfy with what you can / can't see, because when there's a failure you won't know what is really failed.
Also... write down what you did and how to reverse it, as you (or others) might want to reset it to full router if your OPNSense is down.
I have a home-built pfSense unit and when parts die (not if), then I just replace them with spares I have already waiting... as that box is now critical for you.
I also have a Fritz in bridge mode with the pfSense doing PPPoE through it, so effectively, the firewall is the first real device on the WAN. Makes things much simpler as the WAN interface has status like packet drops, etc, much easier to diagnose issues.
Ok, I don't have anywhere near that amount of media, but MythTV takes seconds to rescan ~2TB of videos and maybe a minute to get any missing details like fanart, etc.
Similar amount for music - but I feed it the files after I've run them through Picard.
I've not done a complete rescan of eveything for ages, but from memory it's like an hour absolute tops. More like ~30 mins.
And that's on an underclocked CPU (for quietness).
I track the family's location with GPS Logger (on Android) and the Home Assistant app on the iPhone user... it's all going to HA at the moment to turn lights on when people get home...
And I have a separate Immich server.
So, reading this, I can combine this all together from HA and Immich - or do I need to send the GPS coordinates to this server too?
I'm also not a container user... skimming the installation section, the instructions appear to be only support docker - are standalone instructions also covered? (I may have missed them...)
But, this looks really nice.
I liked thr piechart where you distinguish between walking, cycling, driving, etc, I presume that's done by velocity...? So, do you calculate that or need that data from the phone app?
Linux should see most formats... you might need to install something to read NTFS... but if they're FAT32, most distros have thst installed by default.
If you can't read them, and there's nothing on there that you need to recover, then just zero them and check them with a full SMART scan, then you'll know if they're reliable before wasting time with a RAID array that keeps chewing up drives.
But, I don't know of any mobos that'll connect that many drives...
?