Hello!, I was wondering (sorry about this, i'm no Einstein) what can one do with a virtual machine? what I mean by that is what cool things could one do? maybe use it to play older games, perhaps even make it a storage medium?. I personally like to use applications/games on vm's (im also love customizing the whole thing, artist impulse). Do any of you have any suggestions? thank you for your input.
Does docker count?
I have jellyfin, navidrome, slskd and others running in little docker virtual instances.
I tend to use qemu kvm's just for testing out novel operating systems, trying out package managers or just somewhere I can break stuff without worry.
Arcade Punks builds might be worth it...I just use them on an rpi.
may I ask, from what i've seen jellyfin and navidrome appear to be file transfer network applications? and docker looks like a application workflow type deal? what makes it useful for media? (im not sure what it does exactly so i'd like to know how it works?) thank you
Docker is similar to a VM. It's a vilitualized container. They are used very heavily in enterprise stuff afaik.
I can run:
docker pull ubuntu
And have a virtual Ubuntu server up and running in seconds. Or Arch, Alpine or whatever.
Beyond just OS images many applications are packaged as docker containers as it comes with all the libraries, databases and underlying OS all set up, ready to go and easy to update.
I have Jellyfin & Navidrome docker instances so I can stream my video & music collection around my house and to my phone or laptop when away from home. They are a bit like Plex. Navidrome + Symfonium beats Spotify imo. Slskd means I can use my Android device away from home to download albums to my music collection and then stream them right back to the phone.
oooh! that's actually really neat! so hypothetically, with docker you could set up a server super quick and with jellyfin/navidrome/slskd I can use said server to stream my music and etc to different devices and back? I should try that out! thank you
Yes.
Easiest to use separate containers tho. Jellyfin, Navidrome, Slskd, even Lemmy all provide Docker images just ready to pull. They tend to take up far less space and resources than a VM.
If it's just for personal use I find Tailscale great....no need to worry about opening ports on my home router.
My phone, laptop & rpi server all talk to each other outwith the home network via Tailscale.
ah ok, i'm just looking for a personal shindig myself, i'll look into tailscale, thank you!