I lack formal education in the tech field, but I honestly wish I didn’t waste my 20’s on drugs (it was fun though, honestly) and an attempt at a rap career, instead of getting my hands dirty in the field, so to speak. I got into computers in the early 2000’s, discovered linux in 2006, and since then I’ve been that friend who’s into computers and stuff.

I kind of forget what exactly got me into self-hosting . . . but youtube probably had something to do with it, with many youtubers like Raid Owl, Level1Techs, and even LTT talking about things like Jellyfin and TrueNAS, it got me curious as to why I never got into it sooner.

I honestly only use debian headless, and manage the server via ssh and manage docker containers via portainer’s web ui.

I’m not new to linux though, so 100% stay with a desktop environment like the one that comes with Mint, because that makes things much much simpler. It’s all debian under the hood at the end of the day, and 95% of services provide install guides for debian-based systems anyways. Is this optiplex 3050 your first homelabbing system?

thanks for this . . . .I keep worrying about security, hardening the system … etc, but forget about the essentials: power and networking. #1 priority for me is to get a UPS this year, once I find a job, that is