I am trying to use my old laptops for self-hosting. One has a 6th gen Intel Core i3 (4GB ram), the other has an 11th gen Intel Core i5 (8GB ram). I have previously tried both ubuntu server and desktop but couldn’t get it to work well. For the former I found it difficult to remote ssh and the latter I had difficulty installing Docker containers. (I’m not very good with the command line)

I would like to find an OS that is easier to setup with less of a neccesity for the command line (I would still like to learn how to use it though, I don’t want to get rid of it entirely!). I’ve heard of CasaOS, is that a good option? It seems quite easy to use. What about other alternatives?

  • banshee@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23·
    1 day ago

    The learning curve might be a little high in some regards, but you may want to try NixOS. There are quite a few services ready to enable and customize for self-hosting, and the design makes updating packages fairly simple.

    To be clear, NixOS is not a “simple” solution, but it does work well for self hosting.

      • zenforyen@feddit.orgEnglish
        3·
        24 hours ago

        How is that useful to OP who asked for something “without terminals”? Unless that was a joke.

        Because I’ve been using Arch Linux for 15 years and live in the terminal, but even though I like the idea of NixOS, it’s not only scary because it is alien and I have neither motivation nor enough free time to learn a parallel world and gain non-transferable skills for a niche solution. And that with being interested in what NixOS is doing.

        I would say it is horrible advice to a novice, unless you want to scare people away from learning terminals and configs and managing an operating system without GUI tools.

        • banshee@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          19 hours ago

          I’m not interested in arguing. You’re welcome to your opinion as well.

          Multiple individuals noted the value of diving into non-GUI server administration, and I wanted to share a tool that could be of interest down the road.

          • zenforyen@feddit.orgEnglish
            1·
            2 hours ago

            Fair enough. I’m sure NixOS is a great tool, like Haskell is a great programming language (in fact my previously favorite language with a special place in my heart that taught me most about properly structuring and thinking about code).

            I just wanted to put it into perspective, because not everybody wants to go into THAT deep end. But anyway, it’s all good.

            On a side note, your first sentence is something that I have never seen being said ever by anyone on Reddit. Yeah respectfully agreeing to disagree is also a perfectly fine option.