for my main computer, sure, fine, whatever. I'll sign into my Microsoft account, I don't mind. but my Plex/Minecraft server... maaaaaaannnn come the fuck on. I guess my server can just stay windows 10 for the next 20 years 🤷🏻♂️
because it was super duper easy to setup and the overhead isn't all that bad for my use case. I am concerned whenever I decide to move/upgrade to something different since my hard drives are in a Windows "Storage pool" or whatever it's called
In all seriousness, if you're self hosting anything, please learn your way around Docker and Linux. It's a small time investment up front for huge payoffs. You'll get more value out of your hardware, and you'll have a system that's much more reliable (Windows was not built for 24/7 uptime).
In fairness, I've had several machines running versions of windows server with lots of uptime and zero stability issues. But the last time I ran a windows server is was advanced server 2003 so....
Windows Server isn't so bad as a server platform, although it comes with a lot of unnecessary overhead, and its container support sucks. Given that containers are really the way to go with self-hosted services now, that makes Windows Server a poor choice.
But realistically, when most people say they're self hosting on Windows, they mean regular old consumer Windows, which absolutely hates running for extended periods without rebooting. It's just not built for uptime.
I use TrueNAS and just checked: There is an available Minecraft app and also something called MineOS (seems to be a front end to make managing the server easier). My plex running through the same app ecosystem stays updated and hasn't failed me yet. I used to run the service separate from the NAS, but this is real nice.
FreeNAS and UnRaid probably have the same functionality.