Proxmox is probably overkill for beginners. You'll know it when you want it.

I recommend docker-compose based tools, especially dockge [1]. It drastically cuts down on the surface of weird things you have to deal with. Just put up a reasonable distro (I recommend Debian here, since Fedora tends to get some SELinux issues which would confuse beginners), install docker, and run it. You don't have to touch anything else system-wise (maybe except setting up encryption when installing)

Most self-hostable services provide docke-compose files, which you can just paste in with some customizations, and run it from there.

Tailscale for external access is probably the easiest solution.

1. https://dockge.kuma.pet/

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SchemaLoad 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Some self hosted tools really want to be installed on the host os like Home Assistant. Proxmox just makes it so much easier to blow away and reinstall the OS without having to drag a monitor and keyboard to the server.

	▲	digiown 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I dunno, home assistant docker works perfectly well IMO.

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kingcrimson1000 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I was using KVM with virt-manager on Debian bullseye and I have a great experience especially with GPU passthrough.

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newsoftheday 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I use KVM, never tried proxmox, don't need it, don't want it.

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TacticalCoder 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

TFA's author is using GPU passthrough to get Windows to run games with anti-cheats that won't work under Linux. So you want full hardware virtualization with GPU passthrough for that to work: several hypervisors would do but Proxmox is Debian+hypervisor+LXC+ZFS and it is easy to use.

I got my brother, who's not a techie and who lives at the other end of the world, to install Proxmox and get GPU passthrough working.

> Just put up a reasonable distro (I recommend Debian here

Proxmox is basically Debian.

Proxmox allows to do things that are totally overkill for beginners indeed but it's still simple to use for simple stuff.

I think we should encourage beginners, like my brother, to use solutions like Proxmox, not discourage them.

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digiown 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Needing to run games on the same machine as your server is IMO not the most common use case. It tends to be expensive if power bills are a concern and using a VM as your main machine is tricky IMO.

Most games using anticheat won't run on VMs without a fight too. Your Proxmox supports taking a memory snapshot and restore, which would allow most cheats to work if they are convenient enough.

For every person like your brother we have many more half-serious people who need some type of reward before committing more mental effort. Wtf is a storage pool? What do I do with all these clusters, high availability thing it keeps asking about? Flattening out the learning curve is a nice benefit on its own.

	▲	kingcrimson1000 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The machine that I use now for my server was my main machine back in the day. Apologies if my wording in the post resulted in some confusion but I don't do gaming on the server at all.

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Cyph0n 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

+1, only reach for Proxmox first if you’re really interested in learning it.

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Joel_Mckay 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

And unstable for novices that have no clue what they are working with OS wise.

The virt-manager is easy for most Desktop folks looking to drop Win11 in a frozen backing-image sandbox with a local samba folder loop-back mount (allows fake network share in Win11 or MacOS guest OS.) =3

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digiown 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Virt manager is the least intuitive (discounting actively antiuser crap) program I've ever dealt with. I still don't quite get it and I've used Linux exclusively for more than 5 years.

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watermelon0 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

GUI might not be as powerful, but in my experience, it's similarly non-intuitive as alternatives, such as VirtualBox / UTM (macOS) / VMware Fusion/Player.

For anything more complex (e.g. GPU passthrough) you will need to drop into manually modifying XML files.

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Joel_Mckay 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Did you use the desktop or the CLI utility?

(user group setting issue is a common hiccup)

It pretty much just automates the standard Qemu/kvm setup workflows. =3

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digiown an hour ago | parent [-]

The GUI. Random permission errors, python tracebacks, saving the settings don't always work, and the mysterious charade with "storage pools" that causes new permission problems.

I just started using Incus now. It seems way more intuitive. Its remote feature is amazing too.

	▲	Joel_Mckay an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Sounds like something was seriously glitching. =3