I'm working at a small development company where we mainly use Windows, but we've been tasked with implementing Paperless ngx, which runs on Docker and needs a Linux system. None of us have much experience with Linux or Docker. I'm considering using a user-friendly Ubuntu-based distribution like Linux Mint, as that seems to have a GUI that would allow us to avoid the command line as much as possible. Additionally, we need to ensure that this new Linux system can access our Windows server file shares—will this work out of the box, or will I need to install and configure Samba? Any distro suggestions or major pitfalls to watch out for would be greatly appreciated!
5 Answers
Docker is pretty straightforward to install on any distro that supports it. If you're looking at business applications, I'd suggest Debian or Rocky Linux, but honestly, you can pick any distro that packages Docker. Just remember to keep backups as you go.
If Samba isn’t installed, you can easily set it up. You'll just need to add entries to the fstab file to mount your Windows shares where you need them. Expect to do quite a bit of testing to get everything running smoothly!
About that statement on requiring Linux—it's actually a bit off, but no need to share that with your boss to avoid any complications.
Samba should already be installed on Ubuntu. Mint, being based on Ubuntu, likely includes it too, although it might not use Snap.
If you want something similar to Ubuntu, I would just stick with Ubuntu itself. It's widely used, and while I usually rely on the command line for servers, you can definitely install a GUI if needed.
Yeah, it's better to keep the peace. Just focus on getting everything set up smoothly.