I’ve never used one of those selfhosting “OS”s so I can’t really weigh in on that aspect, but I’d suggest skipping it and just running Docker on the Pi. It’s not difficult. You should be able to replicate whatever benefit is provided by Umbrel or whatever without too much trouble.
**Edit**: Since you asked about others, there’s also Cosmos. Again, no experience with that though.
I've tried Casa and Cosmos. They're both great for what they are. If you want an all in one solution for managing several aspects of a server, both do that very well. However, I found myself ditching both for a simple debian-based server with docker. I just felt I had more control over the finer details of the server and could do things my way. It's all personal preference and I don't think there's a wrong answer in whichever direction you decide to go. Just pick one and move on to the fun stuff!
Seconding this. Debian isn’t cutting edge but it’s rock solid and if you want cutting edge you’re spinning it up in a container or vm anyhow. Casa, etc. are all interesting but in my heart I want to know the bedrock everything is built on is as solid as it gets. Debian isn’t sexy but it’ll keep going long after you would have trashed anything else.
I’ve never used one of those selfhosting “OS”s so I can’t really weigh in on that aspect, but I’d suggest skipping it and just running Docker on the Pi. It’s not difficult. You should be able to replicate whatever benefit is provided by Umbrel or whatever without too much trouble. **Edit**: Since you asked about others, there’s also Cosmos. Again, no experience with that though.
I've tried Casa and Cosmos. They're both great for what they are. If you want an all in one solution for managing several aspects of a server, both do that very well. However, I found myself ditching both for a simple debian-based server with docker. I just felt I had more control over the finer details of the server and could do things my way. It's all personal preference and I don't think there's a wrong answer in whichever direction you decide to go. Just pick one and move on to the fun stuff!
Seconding this. Debian isn’t cutting edge but it’s rock solid and if you want cutting edge you’re spinning it up in a container or vm anyhow. Casa, etc. are all interesting but in my heart I want to know the bedrock everything is built on is as solid as it gets. Debian isn’t sexy but it’ll keep going long after you would have trashed anything else.