Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1245 v5 @ 3.50GHz
Current: 1601 MHz, Max: 3500 MHz
8 CPUs : 1 package(s) x 4 core(s) x 2 hardware threads
AES-NI CPU Crypto: Yes (active)
QAT Crypto: No
Hardware crypto AES-CBC, AES-CCM, AES-GCM, AES-ICM, AES-XTS
Kernel PTI Enabled
MDS Mitigation Inactive
Uptime 72 Days 07 Hours 55 Minutes 43 Seconds
On a asrack mini itx board.
In the past Iâd just recommend Ubuntu (Server) for any beginner. But seeing all the snap crap Ubuntu has been shoving at its users for at least 2 major releases, I wouldnât recommend it anymore.
I also wouldnât recommend Proxmox for beginners, because itâs somewhat difficult and might require some mental gymnastics.
In the past, Iâd also recommend TrueNAS (Scale, as the FreeBSD one seems to be deprecated?), but at least 25.04 has been a sht show - so probably not. However: unless you need VMs, TrueNAS is a one-stop-show and worked quite reliably.
You might want to give OpenMediaVault a try. Or bite the bullet and learn a bit about Proxmox and settle for that. However: unless you run pretty much all services in LXC or bare metal Docker (which is discouraged), youâll eventually face issues in passing through your media files into VMs (LXCs are much simpler in this regard, but they might not satisfy your security related separation as these containers still use the same kernel from the host).
I solved the issue of passing directories through by using VirtioFS. However: there is a performance penalty, albeit arguably less than NFS or other network filesystems.
I bit the bullet and went with Proxmox after being unhappy with Alpine as my host OS due to it using musl compiler and having DNS issues and after TrueNAS Scale 25.04. Depending on the virtualization you want, there are potentially more specialized solutions, but you always need to take the reliability of a distro into account.
I also automated most of the setup using Terraform for reproducibility, but I definitely wouldnât recommend it for beginners.
Sorry, I havenât read all the posts, so if I missed something, just ignore this post.
Good Distros can survive multiple major release upgrades.
I had an OpenExchange installation running on OpenSuse from 2008 to 2016.
I think it was from OpenSuse 10.x to 13.2, my rolling release installations, never get that old.
I havenât ever tried proxmox, but Debian with virtualbox or something is pretty trivial to set up.
Also never tried emby or jellyfin in a VM / LXC container⌠not sure how much of a pain in the butt that is with transcoding
Iâve been running Ubuntu server for a while, with 4-6 VMs on top of it and a few services bare metal (nextcloud, jellyfin, mythtv.) Itâs survived updating to the latest LTS each time so far, 2 years apart, with no major intervention needed.
If you can have all that running under one OS and havenât managed to break something along the way, you surly have the skills to take advantage of a proxmox setup, and should most def give it a whirl!
I run lots of ubuntu servers each with its own purpose. When I break one, it is god send that they are all seperate. Makes learning the hard way not that hard. 
Come back here if you do try proxmox and have any troubles at all. If I canât help you, somone here can!! 
ROFL. I canât even list all the shit Iâve broken. My apache config is so ridiculous Iâm not sure I could recreate it again without an entire weekend to burn learning how it all works again (thanks, nextcloud. Not to mention all the changes you have to make for sane php performance and whatnot with nextcloudâŚ)
It is all working at the moment⌠except for collabora integration.
I always said Iâd switch to pure debian or try proxmox, but then the one time I irredeemably borked it (2023?) I spent a whole weekend bringing it back up as fast as I could on Ubuntu. I had backups, but due to bad hygiene and overly aggressive recent pruning, they were not helpful that time.
I suck!!
But you fixed it!
I recently started my nextcloud journey with nextcloud AIO in a VM, I have already broken it once but the way you can snapshot things means a bad day doesnât turn into a wasted weekend.
Rather than migrating, why not spin up a small proxmox setup and start messing around. Spin up one service at a time. Use it just to test stuff without consequence
This.
in 2025 linux runs a lot of games better, browsing is massively faster and youâre going to be free of all the Windows shitware by default.
Itâs not that complicated.
To start off:
You
donât
need
to
make
it
complicated
back up your stuff, download a distro and go. I just chose for you, enjoy!
(iâve been running linux on/off in various situations including as a network professional since 1998, and Iâm typing this from an ubuntu desktop. it mostly just works)
edit:
didnât realize how long this thread had already gone, so you chose Debian. congrats, you may find things a little trickier or annoying on desktop (server is fine), but have at it!
To be continued here: