So as I look to build my first dedicated media server, I’m curious about what OS options I have which will check all the boxes. I’m interested in Unraid, and if there’s a Linux distro that works especially well I’d be willing to check that out as well. I just want to make sure that whatever I pick, I can use qbittorrent, Proton, and get the Arr suite working
I use Alma because RHEL is designed for enterprise stability. Debian is also a good option.
Just don’t use Ubuntu. They do too much invisible fuckery with the system that hinders use on a server. For basic desktop use it’s fine, but never for a server.
Edit: but you should be doing most stuff in Docker anyway, so the actual OS isn’t going to matter too much. If you’re already comfortable with one base (Debian, RHEL) just use that one or a derivative.
Just don’t use Ubuntu. They do too much invisible fuckery with the system that hinders use on a server.
Would that warning also apply to Mint, since it’s based on Ubuntu, as well as other Ubuntu-based distros?
I wouldn’t use Mint or other desktop-focused OS for a server. Ubuntu’s advantage of newer packages gets largely negated by how long Mint takes to release a new major release, so I’d rather use Debian.
I do think Ubuntu is fine for servers too, like almost any other point release distro.
@DonnieDarkmode any linux distro you want with docker on it.
I’d assume its probably Linux even if it’s the worst in terms of Proton support but, its not like you need all the bells and whistles.
Yeah I’m not surprised. Weak Proton support sucks, but for a dedicated media server it’s not the priority
I dunno what the best is, but if you choose nixos configure openvpn instead of trying to use the protonvpn package.
Just wanted to add that Wireguard is better than OpenVPN in every way and you should use that except when you want to use it for torrenting. I don’t know remember the reason but that’s the one time when you should be using OpenVPN. I think it had something to do with OpenVPN supporting TCP and Wireguard being UDP only or something like that.
interesting. proton has example openvpn configs on their site which was hugely helpful to me. dunno if they have wireguard equivalents, or if those are needed.
I’d be weird if they didn’t have Wireguard configs, Wireguard is basically the standard nowadays. It’s faster and safer (the code base is way smaller, so the chance of there being security vulnerabilities is a lot lower and can be fixed more easily).
Wireguard uses UDP which results in better latency and power usage (e.g. mobile). This does not mean Wireguard can’t tunnel TCP packets, just like OpenVPN also supports tunneling UDP.
I’m using Wireguard succesfully for torrenting.
As a note: while UDP is preferable for stability/power usage, UDP VPN traffic is often blocked by corporate firewalls (work, public free wifi, etc) and won’t connect at all. I run OpenVPN using TCP on a standard port like 80/443/22/etc to get through this, disguised as any other TLS connection.
why? protovpn package has been working fine for me on nixos
edit: nevermind, in a server environment you should configure openvpn (i just use protonvpn on my desktop)
Easy, Linux. I prefer Arch based because of AUR.
I wouldn’t use Arch on a Server. Everything you install will probably be in a docker container anyway, so fast updates for system packages isn’t important compared to stability. Good choices would be Debian or Fedora Server. I personally use Fedora but the reason is just that I use Fedora on Desktop too, so I know they have really good defaults (They’re really fast in adopting new stuff like Wayland, Pipewire, BTRFS with encryption and so on) and it’s nice that Cockpit us preinstalled, so I can do a lot of stuff using a WebUI. Debian is probably more stable tho, with Fedora there is a chance that something could break (even though it’s still pretty small) but Devian really just works always. The downside is of course very outdated packages but, as I said, on a Server that doesn’t matter because Docker containers update independetly from the system.
