Hi! Im new to self hosting. Currently i am running a Jellyfin server on an old laptop. I am very curious to host other things in the future like immich or other services. I see a lot of mention of a program called docker.

search this on The internet I am still Not very clear what it does.

Could someone explain this to me like im stupid? What does it do and why would I need it?

Also what are other services that might be interesting to self host in The future?

Many thanks!

EDIT: Wow! thanks for all the detailed and super quick replies! I’ve been reading all the comments here and am concluding that (even though I am currently running only one service) it might be interesting to start using Docker to run all (future) services seperately on the server!

  • xavier666@lemm.eeEnglish
    7·
    8 hours ago

    Learn Docker even if you have a single app. I do the same with a Minecraft server.

    • No dependency issues
    • All configuration (storage/network/application management) can be done via a single file (compose file)
    • Easy roll-backs possible
    • Maintain multiple versions of the app while keeping them separate
    • Recreate the server on a different server/machine using only the single configuration file
    • Config is standardized so easy to read

    You will save a huge amount of time managing your app.

    PS: I would like to give a shout out to podman as the rootless version of Docker