Think of the package manager as its own app store where you can download (and manage the update process) of each application. It’s also possible to natively install and run apps on DSM using their package manager. This will also save money and make you more flexible in the long term. Many people prefer this because they can pick out their own (more powerful) processor and RAM to handle things like transcoding video. So, you can benefit from the powerful multimedia- and cloud features of DSM without buying the hardware NAS from Synology.
Xpenology creates the possibility to run the Synology DSM on any x86 device like any PC or self-built NAS.
It is optimized for running on a NAS server with all the features you often need in a NAS device. DSM is running on a custom Linux version developed by Synology. Xpenology is a bootloader for Synology’s operating system, called DSM (Disk Station Manager), and is used on their NAS devices.
This then leads you to the big question: What is Xpenology? More than likely you’ve been digging around on the internet looking for ways to build your own network-attached storage server and are looking for a solid and flexible OS to use on it.