My apologies; I have a computer running docker, who I hosts a plethora of services. I have an external drive connected to it (because i don’t have a NAS) and have it mounted to my underlying OS on that Docker server computer. And each container than needs it, mounts directories from that drive.
All of this is internal network only. And another server manages VPN connectivity to my home network. So I have remote access to everything I need with minimal ports forwarded.
I don’t Nextcloud currently, but I have considered it. Currently I have everything I want on a drive connected to my docker box, and if I need it I SCP it to or from that server. My need for files stored at home isn’t exactly huge. But nextcloud or similar is in the pipeline.
I am on the move often too, but because I can VPN into my network, and use the pihole+unbound DNS on my GrapheneOS phone all the time, I always have access to my stuff.
Digital Privacy is an ever evolving endeavor. What I was okay with a year ago, isn’t the same as where I am today.
I am still mid-journey of de-googling, de-microsofting, de-big-techifying my life.
The more and more the digital landscape changes, the more and more we have to be cautious of.
I went from using all the google services, all of the microsoft services, and more of big tech’s services. But at what cost? What was free really only made me the product. My data was and still is to some degree being used, bought, sold by many different providers.
So I have been working towards self-hosting anything that matters to me. File storage, self hosted. Media consumption, self hosted (mostly.)
I have one as far as running a pihole, with my own upstream DNS. Mix that with the only way to access my self hosted things through VPN. And beyond that other security/privacy measures.
The goalpost for being more private, and more secure, is ever changing. The goal is to minimize my exposure.
So, I made the full switch to Linux about a year ago.
My journey has lead me down the Arch rabbit hole. And I feel KDE has the most complete feel. And you can make it as close to what you’re used to with Windows. Hotkeys included. KDE is improving vastly. I have no issues with fractional scaling on KDE backed by Wayland.
As far as package management goes. Sounds like you’re comfortable in CLI, so between Pacman and Yay package management is fairly simple. I have an alias “yeet” to uninstall.
As far as for coding, you can use VSCodium
I’m quite happy with Arch, and KDE on Wayland
The reason videos aren’t recommended is because they quickly go out of date. Text is easier to update, and so are screenshots.
The wiki is the most comprehensive guide you will find.
However if you don’t know what you are looking for help on, it is best to search up what issue you are having, then consult the wiki when you learn the terminology you needed to find the page.