So, any of those will work with almost any distro. I’d personally recommend Jellyfin because Plex is run by a private company and it has turned around and bit its users lately.

I think you might want to look up installation instructions for Jellyfin here to understand it a little better: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/installation

As for what distro? Lots of choices! One thing to remember is there’s so many ways to set things up and everyone has different preferences, so it’s really difficult to just say “Do A, B, and C.” But maybe I can help a bit without assuming anything about your experience level.

Jellyfin is just a “front-end” server app that runs on top of an OS, that you can access through a browser on your network. All it does is give you a very convenient way to serve up media files you give it access to, across your network! :)

My setup as an example: I personally run a server OS called “Proxmox”, wherein I made a virtual machine for OpenMediaVault (a custom Linux OS for making a file server), which helps me run a Docker container for Jellyfin.

(Docker containers are really cool but can be a bit advanced)

But if you think of each component as a building block that you understand and set up, you will get a better idea of what you can learn or leave out for your particular setup.

But let’s make it simpler! I didn’t know anything about this either when I first started. Say you have an old PC with some drives laying around. You could just as well install OpenMediaVault bare metal as the OS, and install Jellyfin within it maybe. That might be enough to get you watching your backed up DVDs on your home network!

Open Media Vault is a modified version of Debian Linux, if I recall correctly. It’s made specifically to get a solid file server up and running. It has a great community too.

https://www.openmediavault.org/

Here’s a really good site with some server tidbits I found useful as well https://perfectmediaserver.com/

I’d also suggest checking out “selfhosted” communities here on Lemmy or maybe that “/r/” site lol.

YouTube can also be handy here, for understanding how to get things going. Things like “ProxMox home server guide” or “Jellyfin server setup”, “OpenMediaVault jellyfin docker”, that kinda thing. You might find one video explains a topic better for you than another.

Sorry it’s super late after a long hike for me but I hope some of this helps you a little on your journey! It’s definitely something to take your time in, more than a “weekend and it’s finished forever” kind of project. :)

Surely you won’t regret 7 proxies.

Oh yeah, I’ll quickly shut that down when they wanna do that “kids these days with the technology” nonsense, usually as some excuse for why these older folks who’ve had 40+ years to figure out computers still can’t check their own email.

No, Timmy isn’t “so smart with technology” because he can consoom on a device designed for infinite low-friction consumption.

Or people who are so “weary” of danger.

Man if that isn’t just empty manager-speak, rephrasing things to BS you and be manipulative. Lol

I cringe so hard at the twitterist carebear-hugbox way of smugly claiming the intellectual high ground and shaming somebody:

“Be better.” or “Do better.”

The sentiment isn’t terrible, but it’s prevalent use is obviously just dripping with arrogance and thrown out in the most petty ways. Ugh!

Absolutely. This “you’re just a poser lefty if you actually vote for Kamala” stuff is such a psyop. I really really hope people aren’t buying it.

Idealists we all may be, we obviously need to deal with the most immediate danger first, and I hope it’s plenty clear that handing Angry Orange Baby more votes isn’t helping anyone!

I’ve actually considered starting a Friendica or other instance exclusively for friends and family to share pictures and communicate, invite only…

… But even if I managed the insane technical aspects and convinced people to try it, I only fear the mainstream social media giants have already trained them to be their worst selves at this point. I can see the bickering drama threads now, eating up my gigabytes…

I just hate how fragmented and walled the most connected Internet ever is…I felt more connection when I had everyone between Yahoo and MSN Messengers, or took the time to check out friends’ MySpace pages.

deleted by creator

You make plenty of sense here. It’s all about intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation right?

For some reason whenever I tried to excel and take pride in my work or invent small improvements to things, I was either rewarded with nothing but higher expectations without higher compensation, or more often, I was just shut down entirely and told to shut up and get back to grinding.

None of that romanticized “I like your style, kid howabout a raise?” hollywood crap happened to me!

I think people more often than not want to do well, they want to be good at something, get better at it, take pride in their work. Being a complete layabout is exhausting!

But just like you, I got to the point of saving my passion for my own projects, and just doing what’s most visible in the job description to not get fired, because I got real tired of being actively punished for making an effort.

Man I never got around to that one either! Added to the list!

Definitely a bit more meta-parodying of such films, and much more modern sensibilities to the point it’s a little offtopic maybe, but nobody really references the comedic genius of Undercover Brother anymore. That movie is solid gold. Lmao

If you really want to, I sincerely hope you set up your movie theater in some form or another. 🍿😁

Oh my gosh. I remember catching a bit of this one when I was flipping through TV way back when. It was AWESOME!!!

I never got the name though, but I remember it vividly as one of those movies that’s so ridiculous but you can just tell everybody was having a great time hamming it up, and it’s just a fun ride.

So…now The Last Dragon is on my list to give a proper watch hahaha.

I love Roller Coaster Tycoon. It’s absolutely crazy how he managed to write a game in a way many wouldn’t even attempt even in those days, but it’s not just a technical feat, it’s a creative masterpiece that’s still an absolute blast to play.

It still blows my mind how smoothly it gives the illusion of 3D and physics, yet it can run on almost anything.

OpenRCT brings a lot of quality of life and is often the recommended way to play today, but the original RCT will always deserve a spot on any “Best Games of All Time” list.

Oh you dun goof’d now!

That’s crazy. Makes a lot of sense.

I always tried to be the “shockingly nice person to game with” whenever I could. It was a lot more fun than just being mean to people for no reason.

I never understood that impulse to scream epithets over xbox live or whatever.

Ah, another Poltergeist fan, I see. :p

Ugh, the world of “branded people.” Everything is like “Add a picture of yourself, or you won’t seem trustworthy!”

Yeesh. Some artists and such can make it using a pseudonym, but it’s rare in more professional circles…but now if you hope to be taken seriously as a professional, you’re expected to put your real super genuine self out there.

…and we get news stories of people being harassed and doxxed literally to death. It’s crazy…

Facebook made it almost fashionable to do so.

"

Zuck: yea so if you ever need info about anyone at harvard just ask

Zuck: i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns

Friend: what!? how’d you manage that one?

Zuck: people just submitted it

Zuck: i don’t know why

Zuck: they “trust me”

Zuck: dumb fucks

"

One of many sources

I remember when it was just funny edgy humor that was clearly satirical for the most part because a lot of us were just dumb kids. It was abrasive and stupid but you had this feeling everyone was in on the joke.

But bizarre satire has turned to deeply held conviction.

I’m not just sad that the mean spirited trolling persists, but that it’s gotten more sincere and often must be taken seriously. :(

I would posit a big part of this is because early-net days were primarily for just socializing and sharing cool stuff (heck yeah, I miss it.) Artists probably didn’t make a majority of their living through the 'net. If something was shared it was likely just “I think this is cool, folks!”

Nowadays, to say the Internet is heavily commercialized would be a massive understatement. Every little interaction is monetized. Many people make their entire living through e-commerce. It’s just how things went.

Meanwhile you have a billion faceless sandfleas with repost-botfarms trying to hustle cash with the stupidest methods possible.

You’ll see entire channels where animations or paintings or whatever are circulated on socials like youtube, twitter, or tiktok with the artist tag conveniently cropped out (if there was one).

Some are outright stealing the work for profit (selling tshirts or something), while others are just using it to farm clicks, which is also a route to profit.

The artist who made the work is cheated, perhaps unaware, as some click-grifter gets all the attention. And that sucks. :( As an artist myself, I try to make sure I share the sources for stuff now, because recognition is a form of thanks, at the very least.

I miss the sharing internet…the attention economy has basically turned the internet into a sociological illustration of “The paperclip apocalypse”. :(