I don’t want to spend much money yet, so for now I will work with what I have. And what I have is an older HP desktop computer running Windows 7. The OS is not functional anymore so I will start by installing a Linux OS to host my software.
Currently I imagine a Linux box that runs an OS configuration setup essentially as a host for VM’s or Dockers and a bunch of Storage. Due to time limitations (aka; laziness), I have previously opted for full-fledged GUI’s to bypass the learning curve. However, this has always led me to roadblocks and back to the command line anyway. For now, I’ll go with what I know and install Linux Mint on my PC as it is just to start playing around.
Assuming I am successful in my endeavors I will need upgrade the server once I start using it for development and real server stuff. But for now, I am ordering two 4TB drives with the intent of making a raid file server. It may be slow, but at least it will give me the storage I require.
While I wait for my new drives, I will start by installing Linux Mint and then moving on to looking into my virtualization platform to see where to go….. The initial installation of Linux Mint was very easy which is allowing me to dig into my prime unknown question, which virtualization solution I should use?
Virtualization review:
Lifewire VM review and some other pages appear to confirm my previously forgotten knowledge, there is really only one VM software available to me, VirtualBox. It has an GPLv2 license, so even though it’s an Oracle product it can be freely used. There is, of course, the enterprise level Extension Pack add-on that is always there lurking to force a purchase. … hold on… what about Qemu ..
My initial look at Qemu is that it would appear to be a very functional solution but with NO simple GUI front end. Essentially fully command line (bringing back to my question of what would I want for my core OS to do?) which means a notable learning curve. But it’s not like the learning curve of VirtualBox is zero.
Next, I will briefly attempt to sandbox a running Qemu VM running a Linux Mint instances. Of course, this will be on the temporary Ubuntu instance I am already running.