So, in a scenario where I’d wanna run a Jellyfin server and potentially an Immich in the future, they could all go on NAS?

Would this be command line exclusively too?

Alright, thank you. This will be the first step. Debian in a VM, full GUI to learn all the basics.

Genuinely, I really appreciate the guidance here, I really want to learn to be as independent as possible tech wise and I’m really excited to get started with this.

Yeah, okay, that makes a lot of sense. I asked in another comment as well. I read about “headless” servers, which from what I understood means no GUI. Would you recommend that, or use a GUI first and then move to headless when the actual server is in place?

Quick question to the Linux inside the VM; I came across suggestions for a “headless” server, which, if I understood correctly, means no GUI. Is it better to get straight into that, or install a Linux with GUI and use the CLI from that?

Linux clearly is the way to go, I’ve seen. I’ve been in the Mac environment for the past 20 years so I think the very first thing to do is to install Linux on a VM. Question to that; I’ve seen Debian being mentioned a lot, is this “the best” to start with?

Linux commands and networking, two things I definitely haven’t done a lot of. Didn’t actually consider networking as I’m “just doing it locally”, but as u/atzanteol@sh.itjust.works said, I don’t just wanna run scripts or commands to get it to work and then have no idea what to do when it breaks.

Thank you! That will go in the bookmarks folder too!

I’m probably going to change hardware in a not-so-distant future, as the macbook is struggling with 2 simultaneous 1080p streams and is having a meltdown with 4K ones. I’m not using Docker, which seems to be a go-to as well.

From what I’ve gathered with the comments here, learning Linux is the first step.

That was a lot of engagement to wake up to, I appreciate you all! Thank you very much!

For anyone in the same position as me that may find this in the future, clearly the first step is to get acquainted with Linux and learn Linux commands. I feel I may have more to learn than I initially thought, but hey, that’s what free time is for right?

I’m not looking to expose anything to the internet yet at least. From the little I researched, there seems to be a million things that can go wrong and very few that can go right.

What I’d ideally want is to be able to run a couple of simultaneous Jellyfin streams, backup photos (Immich/ente/etc) and possibly a “local cloud” like Nextcloud just to try it out without having to worry about any kind of hacking. If there are any good self hosted apps for like groceries and stuff, that would be pretty sweet too. They don’t have to sync immediately, just when someone is on the home network.