Which installation is right for me?

Hi all, I’m coming to you as a power user of smartthings. I recently built a computer to run a Plex server and thought to myself, why don’t I step up to the big time and move over to home assistant. I began the windows install and quickly found out why it isn’t a primary target for Hass. I even attempted docker but my knowledge beyond the basics of computing is on par with your grandmother’s. I’m also on Windows 10 home so docker wouldn’t work anyways. So, I’m asking you all what method I should go to? I’d really prefer to use the machine I just built if possible. If that means wiping Windows and installing Linux on that PC I will do that, I’m just looking for the easiest route to be able to use the machine I just built.

I say my knowledge is on par with your grandmother’s however, I follow directions well and catch on quick. Mostly my problem is if there are any assumptions in a guide (previous knowledge, command prefixes, ect) they are completely lost on me. So knowing that, is there a direction I should take? And if anyone has any experience running a Plex server alongside on a non-windows platform, please share your experience! Thank you

I’m thinking you probably want to run a VM using either VMware Workstation Player or VirtualBox (I don’t think you can get hyper-v on Windows 10 Home can you?)

In any case download the VMDK (VMware) or a VDI image (VirtualBox) and click through to make a new VM using these two as a file system image. I’d recommend you give the VM 2 cores, 2GB ram, 64GB disk so that you have plenty of space for snapshots and addons. Oh, definitely bridge the network adapter of the VM, don’t nat it.

It should look something like this: https://www.ivobeerens.nl/2019/01/15/install-home-assistant-hass-io-in-vmware-workstation/

  1. Ditch windows. The VMware image has problems, and it is still, well, windows at the bottom end. Friends don’t let friends run important services on windows.

  2. Follow @kanga_who’s guide to installing. It is suitable for your grandmother, although both of mine have passed away. In fact I don’t think either of them even saw a PC :slight_smile:

  3. Plex works exactly the same on linux as on windows. I have done it (some time ago, didn’t like it, but it certainly worked)

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Guide Here if you are interested.

If you want a simple way to deploy Plex using Docker, I can post my config.

Thank you guys for your replies! I’ve started looking over the guide and it seems it’s going in the direction I was thinking of taking next (Ubuntu). I’ll go for the desktop because I want to run a Plex server alongside. Thanks again!

You don’t need a desktop GUI to run Plex Server.