Hey everyone! I'm new to Linux and eager to learn by setting up a home server. Currently, I'm running a Plex media server on an old laptop with Linux Mint 22.1. I'm planning to buy a mini PC to host the server instead. Should I stick with Mint, or would it be smarter to switch to something like Ubuntu Server? I'd love to hear your recommendations, thanks!
4 Answers
There's a distro selection page in the Linux noobs wiki you might find helpful. Plus, always remember to back up your data and test things out in a VM first to avoid hiccups!
When you mention home cloud storage, are you just looking for a way to read and write files over the network? I run Ubuntu on my server (an HP microserver) for Plex and network folders. Mint would work fine, too—you could clone your current drive onto the new PC and set up NFS or Samba shares for easy access to your files.
Most people lean towards using specialized NAS distributions rather than regular ones for this purpose. I suggest trying Open Media Vault (OMV); it's a free, popular option based on Debian for NAS systems. You can also set up OwnCloud or NextCloud for your cloud storage needs. If you're interested in something more user-friendly, CasaOS is gaining popularity as it allows you to manage services via Docker containers on a regular distros, but it's less suited for heavy data storage tasks.
Linux Mint is more tailored for desktop use, meaning it has a lot of extra features and programs that a server version wouldn't. I'd recommend Ubuntu Server as a better fit if you're focusing solely on server tasks. But if you want the flexibility to use your mini PC as a desktop too, continuing with Mint could still work for you.
TrueNAS Scale is another good alternative to consider instead of OMV. It might be worth looking into!