The biggest advantage for docker in the “home lab” environment is to be able to try out an app, but if you decide you don’t like it, removal is simply deleting the container and the data folder. That’s it. No trace left.
Sadly you can’t say that for installed apps.
But I agree, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Seems DietPi will be right up your street and look after things exactly how you want, simply 😁
Originally it was for the Pi, but can also be installed on x64 PC systems, either UEFI or BIOS, so basically runs on anything. It does run great on a Pi, it’s biggest advantage being that it logs to RAM, which massively saves on SD card wear. It’s also the only current distro which works reliably on the original Pi 1 nowadays (if you still have those hanging around!)
And I get that everyone saying “Docker!” is a bit boring, but there is a reason for it - containerising everything does make it a lot easier to manage and migrate everything to another system or revert back a single component to a different version. And you just backup a config file and your data folder for each container and you can recreate your system so easily. If you install directly, you have to worry about databases, file paths, permissions… but as you said, there’s nothing wrong with just installing stuff. Especially if it’s only a few programs.
I run 26 docker containers. Installing all those on a system would be a mess…
I’ll add my vote as it’s not been mentioned: DietPi - based on Debian (since the majority are recommending that) and has a really easy “one click” menu system to install apps (of which include Jellyfin, Plex). And a built in updater to keep everything up to date. And it’ll install on pretty much anything (SBCs, new PCs, old PCs, VMs).
No need to use docker, it installs everything directly, though it does support it if you want to go down that route.
Or, DietPi with CasaOS which is a web interface and app store for docker installations.
Lastly, Plex have their own guide on what you need to copy to move your Plex data from one system to another: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201370363-move-an-install-to-another-system/
If the old tablet is Android, Fotoo is perfect. Yes it costs, but one off fee and worth it. Can pull from so many different sources.
Personally, I still use Google Photos. Both my wife and I have us, the kids and pets all autotagged into an album for all the pictures taken on our phones and Fotoo randomly shows these on the Nexus 7 tablet I have taped into a wooden frame.
This is the GOAT 🐐
I had reliability issues with PiHole and moved to AdGuardHome a couple of years ago. It has never, ever crashed and the updates takes a couple of seconds. It rocks.
You can’t run Android Auto directly on your phone anymore, it was disabled last year. It only runs as a service to be used by a suitable head unit.
For free, duckdns.org
For a little money (of buying a domain name), Cloudflare
Both have apps, scripts, API, docker containers etc. to dynamically update. And a web interface, obviously.
To counter my own “easy to migrate” argument, DietPi includes a backup utility called ‘dietpi-backup’ (genius naming convention, I know!) which you can use to backup your whole system to another drive. And of course restore your whole setup on a clean install.
Also very useful for rollbacks if needed. I have a 2.5in 5400rpm 1TB drive attached to my DietPi server which is just for backups - it backs up every night at 2am and it’s incremental too. I have 5 days of backups and it’s one command and a couple of ‘Enters’ to get it rolling back to an earlier config - really easy and useful when a recent kernel update broke my ethernet adapter (Debian’s fault - not DietPi!).