So my friend gifted me a RaspberryPi4 and I wanted to use it as my media server and seedbox. I've been running these two services off my desktop for years and I'd love to have an independent device that does this.

Anyway, I've been struggling a bit (as I expected) and am very much lost when trying to jump down the Docker rabbithole. I am a tech savy person, but I have absolutely 0 experience working in Linux or doing any sort of networking so I'm getting lost.

I guess my primary question is, is it worth it for me to spend a ton of time learning Docker and how to get it up and running with the containers I want to use? Or should I just save myself the headache and install the software I want on straight to the Pi? I really just intend on setting up the torrenting/media essential software and not touching it unless I have to. Maybe try to configure Pihole in addition to this as well. I feel a bit overwhelmed and can't seem to find any good guides for beginners on this topic and keep getting lost/stuck.

I currently have DietPi installed, and only have Samba installed and configured to have the ext. media drive accessible from my Windows desktop. This took me a week working a few hours after work to get this far but I finally was able to get it configured.