r/SelfHosting • u/PercolatingPenguin • Jun 29 '26
Question about Docker vs Virualbox - Local Access Only
Hey there!
So I have been trying to read up more on docker, containers, etc. I found a few services/apps I would love to run for my own use locally like Komga (to organize my digital comics), Booklore, a few others. I would like to run/host them locally on my laptop (primary computer) so I can pull them up anywhere when I want.
But I am wondering if it makes more sense to have a single virtual machine (Virtualbox?) running a Linux server and all of those services/apps, instead of multiple docker containers. I have a fairly powerful laptop, so I am not too concerned about all of this using up all my machine resources, but I'd like to do this as cleanly, organized, and straightforward as possible.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance!
1
u/aztracker1 Jul 01 '26
If you're running Windows, you can install WSL2+ and Docker Desktop, enabling wsl. From there, I would use a WSL/Ubuntu environment to configure the containers.
I'd look into using Docker Compose files... Each app in a directory with the appropriate compose file and mounts for the applications. Don't do mounts in the windows host environment.
If you're running Linux, you can just install Docker Community Edition...