Self-Hosted Main

Proxmox on bare metal. Then a TrueNas VM for storage. And a Ubuntu VM for containers.

I have only ever used UnRaid, so I can't speak to the differences between server options. But I love UnRaid!

I am not very experienced in using text-based command terminals, so having a GUI is very helpful for me. In the past, I've tried to really understand the Linux terminal, making reference sheets for all the commands and writing down file paths, but in the end, I just spend way too much time trying to remember/ figure out how to do something that would only take clicking an icon. (I'm not here to argue the merits of terminal vs GUI. I understand the power of the terminal and still occasionally use it when necessary).

I originally started using UnRaid because of the Linus Tech Tips video, where they made 2 gaming PCs in one computer. I really wanted to do that too for my partner and I to game together. I mainly wanted to do that for the cool factor, but ultimately, it was cheaper to buy all the parts for one PC and just get a second GPU and an UnRaid license than it was to buy everything for 2 PCs.

UnRaid's built-in Docker and VM support is amazing! The Community Applications plugin has also made Docker Containers a breeze! People make pre-configured apps that only take minimal setup on my side to get running (mostly setting the file path for save folders). I've never made much luck with Docker itself on other OSs, but now I run Plex, Home Assistant, Blender, Cura Slicer, photo backup, minecraft server, etc. All only took a few clicks and setting file paths, and then they are up and running!

The ability to quickly spin up VMs in UnRaid and choose how many resources you want to give it (CPU cores, RAM, passing through USB or any PCIe device) has been amazing! It is really making it easier for me to learn Linux since I can easily access Windows or Linux as VMs and easily give GPU access to either if I need to. I guess it's like having all the benefits of bare metal installs and VMs.

UnRaid also has a terminal for more advanced users. Really, it seems anything is possible with some of the stuff I've read about people doing. And I never imagined I could build two gaming PCs into one!

I really wanted to self host so I wrote my own OS, from scratch.

Unraid for my disks and *arr stack and 3 other Ubuntu LTS boxes for my containers

unraid if you're running media apps, cameras, etc it works well

FreeBSD

Proxmox or Debian minimal!

Fedora Kinoite + podman

Ubuntu server with ansible playbook and docker services

unRAID is fantastic. I used to use it as a monolith server, now it acts as my NAS.

I currently run a Kubernetes cluster on a handful of Ubuntu server nodes.

windows server, I don't like raid software

Proxmox, Debian containers.

I've been on Unraid for years now with no complaints, much better then all the other NAS platforms. The docker app catalog is great. I also run a number of VMs on it including GPU pass through.

I use Debian stable just because I'm so familiar with Linux

Almalinux period. Use smb for fileshares, rsync for backups and docker for everything else.

I use a mix of truenas, debian, and proxmox

Harvester HCI

VMware on one, runs Ubuntu (and then docker) and various appliances. Xpenology on the other. Xpenology also runs Docker for more OOTB containerized apps.

Arch Linux for my primary server. Raspbian for my SBCs.

Proxmox cluster for containers,alerts.etc

Openmediavault for my NAS

ESXi 8 with ISCSI shared storage. Love it.

I use Fedora.
Why not Promox or unraid or any of those? Because I didn't see a personal benefit to it over Linux+libvirt+qemu (I'm sure there is a benefit, I just don't care enough to find out) Why not Arch/Debian/Ubuntu/etc? Because I partially use it as a way to learn or practice things from work and I want to stick as close to RHEL as possible.

FreeBSD with its jails

Used Unraid for many years and moved to TrueNAS Scale, mainly due to lack of raid performance and bitrot.

Really happy with TrueNAS Scale and specially K8s.

Anything that can run docker works for me.

Clean Debian + Docker w/ portainer, without installing anything extra on it. SOLID.

• Device support is great for older enterprise stuff

• Stable as it goes.

• Easy to find solution for problems you may come across due high userbase.

Arch, because I've always had a better experience with it than Ubuntu, be it server or desktop. I also daily drive it on my desktops.

It's so much easier to setup. Only with Docker and MergerFS it's a command and easily updatable, instead of the PPA setups or bash installs you have to do on Ubuntu. The wiki is still the best.

And it's way easier to maintain when there's less stuff.

I used unraid last year, excellent experience learning how to use docker + vm in a user-friendly interface.
Now I use debian (installed via debootstrap) headless (docker only).

Currently running 1 server. Ubuntu, with docker because I'm not doing a ton, but I don't want to have to take down my pi-hole if I need to reboot jellyfin. etc.

RHEL 9 for all my servers home and abroad. I have a few vms that run with kvm and I use docker for everything else that I can