A raspberry pi running Kodi has been serving me well for years.
Easy install paths include LibreELEC and osmc. I believe both are based on debian.
FWIW I chose and have been happy with osmc.
Regardless of the choice, Kodi has a plugin system for things like YouTube, you can access your media via the jellyfin plugin/app, or by pointing Kodi at your media. It has a remote app available on android and iOS, and for the most part just works.
Looks like I'm an outlier here. I run navidrome on my server, but for jams on the go I use a HiFi Walker H2 dac/mp3 player with Rockbox. I sync my library from the server to the sd card when I add new music/podcasts/audiobooks. I wrote a python cli tool for the syncing.
At home I use the web interface on my laptop, and an old android (wifi only) phone connected to Bluetooth speakers for kitchen tunes.
It's really easy. Graphene has a web flasher with very good instructions, and once flashed, you're good to go. I haven't looked back. Once installed you'll want your apps.
If you want to sign in to the play store and connect your google account to the phone for your apps, you can do that, bu then you're kinda right back where you started. Not fully, because Graphene, but Google is still gonna google and suck up any and all data it can.
So for apps, look to F-Droid, Obtainium, and Aurora store.
F-Droid and Obtainium for FOSS apps, and Aurora store for play store apps without having to sign in to the play store.
An old pc I built forever ago for live streaming when I used to run my youtube channel. It's an i7 something or other with 32gb ram and a 32 tb raid (4x8).
m1 Mac mini
HP elitedesk 800 G3 mini
two HP elitedesk 800 G3 sff
Deku
dumb network switch
rpi 4 8gb
And here's what's running:
Bottom pc is the nas
Mac running jellyfin
the hps running:
navidrome
aonsuku (pretty navidrome frontend)
audiobookshelf
qbittorrent
gluetun
vikunja
radicale
Joplin
matrix
local backup for critical data
some other things I'm forgetting
The rpi is my wireguard tunnel to ssh in on the rare occasion I need remote ssh access.
FWIW, if you want to learn how to use the command line, docker, and how to manage and secure your services, I'd recommend installing Ubuntu server or Fedora server on the NucBox; and then install docker and learn how to get your services stood up using the docker cli.
This is the route I went specifically because I wanted to learn more about Linux, and how to manage a server and services.
The tools being offered as suggestions (unraid, truenas, yunohost) are abstraction layers meant to make hosting easier. And to be clear, there is nothing at all wrong with these tools or using them. What they'll do is give you a GUI to manage your system and services, making using the command line mostly unnecessary. Again, nothing at all wrong with that. Just depends on what you want.
Regarding exposing the services, it's good to be cautious. I went with Pangolin, which is like a self hosted version of tailscale/cloudflare tunnels (I'm simplifying a bit).
Pangolin allows you to access your services over a VPN tunnel, and, to set your desired level of authorization needed to access that service. I really like it and have found it to be very reliable.
Also, FWIW, I'm not in IT or an expert. Just a person who wanted to learn about Linux and self hosting to take back control from big tech.
A raspberry pi running Kodi has been serving me well for years.
Easy install paths include LibreELEC and osmc. I believe both are based on debian.
FWIW I chose and have been happy with osmc.
Regardless of the choice, Kodi has a plugin system for things like YouTube, you can access your media via the jellyfin plugin/app, or by pointing Kodi at your media. It has a remote app available on android and iOS, and for the most part just works.