I had been talking about getting fed up with my (circa 2021) Windows 10 machine for months, and I finally turned it into a Linux self-hosting machine! This has been my hobby over the last few weeks.

• Step 1: I bought an 8TB NAS drive to put into it.
• Step 2: Installed Kubuntu. Easy-peasy. Probably easier than Windows.
• Step 3: Installed Docker and Jellyfin. Super easy. Now I’m seeing my library inside my house.
• • In the process of dumping all my old DVDs to my archive. Since I’m Gen-X, I have a horde of DVDs and Blurays (and CDs) just sitting around.
• Step 4: It’s passed the wife test. “This is pretty wild without commercials.”
• Step 5: I also installed NextCloud. OK, that just works, too!
• Step 6: I wanted NextCloud outside of my house to take notes and stuff. So, I set up a tunnel and I’m using CloudFlare Zero Trust and basically setting up whitelisted devices because I’m paranoid about someone doing something with my server.
• Step 7: Happily surprised that most of my Steam library still works. Installed Steam.

And, I’m happy. I’m surprised how easy it was! But I have some to-do items.

• I need to set up some sort of offsite backup that’s automatic. Previous to this server I had been saving things to Koofr. I might up my plan with them to set up an automatic backup, but I’d very much be interested in what all of you do.
• I want something to stream music and make a Pandora replacement for my wife. Cloudflare doesn’t like streaming, so I’d need some other solution than through my JellyFin/Cloudflare path.
• I’m just now discovering all the cool things that can be done with a self-hosted server. Baby steps, though! Suggestions on easy low-hanging fruit for next steps to install?

I wish I would have taken the leap years ago. My resistance came from not being able to play my games. However Linux has come so far in the last 2 years on that front. The only game I “miss” is League of Legends. But maybe that’s a good thing.