I’m looking to switch. I like to tinker and try new things.
Replies I’d like to see:
Tell me what OS you’re using! What do you like about it? What don’t you like? What is your primary use for it?
I don’t just want recommendations for my use cases, though I’ll list it below. I want to learn what’s out there and what’s possible.
My Use Cases:
I’m currently using QTS that was preloaded on a QNAP NAS that I got used.
My main goal is to do more self-hosting. I want to be as independent and self-sustainable as possible. Like many of us, I’m burnt out on being treated as a product by big tech.
I’d also like to try to set up a game server for my Steam library.
Really, I just like to tinker. I like when things break or don’t go according to plan. I like to research a problem and fix it!
3 Devices: Main, Storage and Compute
Main is a Futro S740 running Debian, it handles my Cloudflare Tunnel, Nginx Proxy Manager, Git (Forgejo), Portainer, Paperless and some smaller services. Debian just like others said, rock solid, super small and just works.
Storage is a custom built Unraid Server with an ASRock N100M, an SSD and a bunch of HDDs, it runs Plex and some Media related containers. Unraid is amazing as it turns off the drives and only spins up the one drive that has the file I want to stream. I get under 17W at idle with 9 HDDs with no stream running.
Compute is an M1 Mac Mini running Asahi Linux Fedora. This one has a Minecraft server, Immich, Handbrake to transcode. Things that need a little more horsepower.
All systems have their pros and cons, I wish there was another Server OS like Unraid that had a great WebUI just like Unraid, but others like TrueNAS put their focus on ZFS, which is great but not for power efficiency.