Yep, Debian for sure ! 3 years ago I settled for debian on an old spare laptop, It’s still cruisen with more than 21 containers !! Sure I had a few fresh installs because skill issues, lack of proper configuration, user mistakes… But it’s probably the easiest to maintain and learn as a beginner !
No idea what’s your level and how close you’re with computers and how much time you have to spare, but don’t be afraid to make mistakes and try a few things out.
If you like me just a plain old geek who knew his way arround computers and used Hamachi back in the day thinking you were a HAKKER ! Get ready to get your ass kicked !
While self-hosting and de-googling is fun, it also has alot of negative things:
Time consuming
Involves alot OF Searxing/Reading
Debuggin (kinda…)
Learning the basics of at leat 1 scripting language (consider bash your ally)
It’s an infinite rabbit hole that will suck you in and COULD get to your nerves…
One of the best advice I could give you along the way is, If you’re stuck on a bug or something isn’t working as expected in your setup and I seems you couldn’t find any answer or similar issues on the web, you absolutly have to take a break, not a 5min cigarette break… A few hours bicycle/sleep break !!!
The next day you will for sure find a solution !!
Good luck, have fun and don’t forget to take time for yourself and people arround you !