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"Ultimate" guide for literal beginners (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Yesbutnotreally@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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Hey selfhosters.

I have a question about starting self hosting; I have run Jellyfin on an old MacBook for a bit and wanna dip more than a toe into the self host pool. Are there any guides out there you’d recommend for actual, complete beginners who knows nothing but wants to learn?

I’ve searched a lot but it feels like they’re pretty advanced for beginners. Is it just a really sharp learning curve to this, or am I not finding the good ones?

Edit: To clarify what level I’m really, truly at: I run the Jellyfin server on regular macOS and have an external 5TB drive connected via usb. That’s it.

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[–] poweruser 1 points 1 day ago

I second the Debian recommendation, with one caveat: if ever you need to install software that is not maintained by Debian (I.e. it is installed using a command like make install instead of apt install) then you could run into significant problems.

Debian uses a system (called APT) to manage the logistics of all your apps and libraries. This is wonderful until you add a program using a different method that APT doesn't know about. In that case you can "end up in dependency hell" where your system can no longer update or install new packages.

Advanced users can work around this limitation to install things safely, but for a user just starting out I suggest to only ever install packages that exist in the Debian repositories (that is, can be installed with APT or one of its various frontends). This can mean the programs are a little outdated or not available.

Debian has a document that explains this in greater detail, which I suggest every Debian user reads: Don't Break Debian