I think if you have a mini PC or something you don’t mins installing server specific OS on, proxmox VE is pretty great. It can be a bit of a headache depending on what you want to do but it also makes expanding your self hosting super easy/fun.

Proxmox let’s you created virtual machines or containers and easily manage them.

Currently I run a mini PC.(Beelinks are great for this and pretty cheap with more power than a raspberry pi)

1. Proxmox VE as the operating system
2. Jellyfin as my media server

• looking to install home assistant and some others as well.

3. Tail scale to use as a VPN into my network privately from anywhere.

Simplest set up? No. But I also just started self hosting. You’re gonna hit some.headaches regardless but it’s also extremely rewarding and I’ve learned alot.

Edit: if you’re only wanting to run one thing (say jellyfin) . A raspberry pi with tail scale and jellyfin is how I started. Works just fine.

Personally, I run the following:

Hardware:

• Mini PC (beelink but used to use raspberry pi)
• 1tb external drive for now

Software/OS

• proxmox (so I can virtuaize what I Host on one machine)
• Ubuntu server in a VM
• jellyfin (media server)
• tailscale (to access my server from anywhere)

One of the top comments mentions starting with plex. I also recommend that. Jellyfin is cool but plex makes a lot of features such as sharing and subtitles much easier. You also can with jellyfin but it’s much more technical. The only reason I went away from it was I felt the direction plex was going seemed a little too commercial for me. And I also like to use open source when I can.