this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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What OS should I use for self-hosting that doesn't require extensive terminal knowledge? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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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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[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago

The command line is an exceptionally useful tool, you may want to spend a little time getting familiar with it and common command line tools that would probably make self hosting almost anything easier.

It's like wanting to learn to play guitar but not learning how to restring and tune it, sure it's not necessary but you're going to be overly dependent on others to do something you could learn for yourself with a little time and patience, and it will probably broaden your perspective on what you can do once you do get familiar with how to pipe commands together and combine basic tools into something more sophisticated and complex.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

I misread that as "self-loathing" and the answer was obvious.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

yunohost

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

Umbrel OS

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

NixOS doesn’t have a curve, it’s a fucking wall 😆

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Well said and thanks for expanding on the topic. It's great to get more information out there and give others extra perspective.

I find Haskell fascinating too - it really changes your expectations of programming languages!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago

😄 Sometimes it's hard to remember the differential

[–] [email protected] 107 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (40 children)

If you’re afraid of the terminal, you won’t get far in self hosting. You should learn to use the terminal. It’s not as scary as people make it sound.

You mentioned having issues with SSH into your old server. You can install a desktop environment if it makes things easier for you, but you should still learn how to be proficient in the terminal. Proxmox might help. It lets you create and manage VMs through a web interface. It can be annoying if you’re not super familiar with networking though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It’s not as scary as people make it sound.

It is not "scary". It is complicated and requires special knowlege.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I wouldn’t call it complicated, but yeah, it’s special knowledge. So is all of self hosting.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You wouldn't. A lot of tech people wouldn't. But it is. I've found this out the hard way, after spending dozens of hours trying to figure it out. You're not doing anyone any favors.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It’s not any more complicated than a GUI, it’s just that the dozens of hours you spent learning to use a GUI was a long time ago, and you don’t remember how complicated it was.

Also, you’re probably exaggerating, because dozens of hours is way longer than it should take to become proficient at the terminal. There are resources online that you can use to learn in a few hours.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

it’s just that the dozens of hours you spent learning to use a GUI

This is utter nonsense. You do not need to learn to use a GUI. You just look at the available buttons and click the ones you need. And when you click them they do what they say, they don't return a "command not found" or "undefined error" with zero diagnostic information. And they work the same regardless of what OS or distro you're on.

The fact that you don't understand this is why you're not qualified to tell people that it's "not scary".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Ok, so it’s been long enough for you, that you can’t even conceive of not knowing how to use a GUI anymore. Good for you, I guess.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Generally, Linux Servers are best administered from a command line. At least in the beginning to set everything up. In turn they are faster on lower hardware as they dont even have a graphical desktop at all so need less resources. You could of course install a windows server OS. They can be fully administered through Remote Desktop and a GUI.

There are multiple projects to make self hosting more accessible (like casaOS). They automate many steps of the setup and then offer you a webUI for further steps. Maybe have a look here https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted?tab=readme-ov-file#self-hosting-solutions

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Woah, there's a lot. Nice that there's plenty of options!

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Unraid is great for beginners.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Not going anywhere near unraid so long as your (very expensive) license is tied to a USB stick.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

your (very expensive) license is tied to a USB stick

Not true. You can link it to your Unraid.net account using Unraid Connect: https://docs.unraid.net/account/link-key/

Sure, it's not perfect, but still the best option for beginners.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Almost all of selfhosting is editing config files, setting permissions and starting/stopping services.

Setting it up so you can administer a server by desktop is probably as hard as learning how to edit config files from a terminal. Maybe harder.

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