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What OS should I use for self-hosting that doesn't require extensive terminal knowledge? (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 days ago by scheep@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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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?

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[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I mean if that’s what you think, I can tell you don’t work in the industry. Desktop editions generally have more than just a “prepackaged GUI” on top of a server edition.

Server editions generally have text based installers. This might not seem like a big deal, until you’re installing on a system that doesn’t have any graphics, just a serial console.
They almost always have an easy way to do headless and network installations.
They sometimes have additional security modules, like SELinux, different kernel boot parameters, or even different kernel versions. (Although this is less common nowadays.)
They’re also missing an audio server (different than a GUI), and usually a print server.
They can often be GBs lighter, which makes a difference when you’re installing on virtual machines with limited disk space.
They sometimes use different file systems by default (like Fedora used to).
They might create different swap setups.
They usually have very different network defaults. Like, desktop editions usually have a firewall, whereas server editions usually don’t (or it’s not enabled by default).
Server editions often include terminal tools that desktop editions don’t.
They’ll sometimes have a different network manager (Ubuntu Server uses systemd-networkd while Ubuntu Desktop uses Network-Manager).
Server editions almost never come with userland file mounting tools like gvfs.
Sometimes (like in Fedora) a server edition will come with remote management solutions like Cockpit.
The home directory skeletons will be vastly different on a server vs a desktop.

That’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure there are plenty more I could find.

Now, since you seem like you might accuse me of it, note that I did not say that a server edition and a desktop edition can’t be swapped back and forth by installing and removing packages and changing a bunch of config. They can. But, it’s not “just” some GUI stuff that makes a desktop edition, and it’s not “just” the lack of a GUI that makes a server edition. They are usually quite different.

Source: I’ve been a professional Linux server administrator for 16 years. But don’t take my word for it. Try it yourself. Install Ubuntu server, then run sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop and see if it’s exactly the same as installing Ubuntu Desktop.