Podman + systemd is how I run production workloads at work.

For us it's the perfect balance between simplicity, observability (Beszel) and reliability. Not the right tool if you have dynamic workloads but definitely the right tool for boring and predictable workloads.

At home I run K3S, it's awesome. It also breaks a lot and does add a whole bunch of complexity that I would only recommend if you enjoy tinkering and fixing things.

I prefer docker containers (on proxmox VMs), but that could just be the familiarity of a few years experience talking. It does add some distance from 'bare metal' but it also makes backup/restore, and therefore portability, quite simple. I backup both the VMs and the 'persistent' container data that I always create dedicated volumes for, so I have a couple of different avenues and granularity for restoring.

There's nothing else out there, that I know of, that offers improvements on any kind of scale that it would be worth my migrating to.

I do hear good things about podman, so if I was starting from scratch I'd look into that. I have one podman instance running UnifiOS, but that's only because there's no official docker compose from Ubiquiti (and maybe that's telling in itself). Podman feels more opaque to me than docker, but I have years under docker and essentially zero under podman.

There are really easy to user docker app managers out there. The author says 'I already use systemd'. I mean, I guess I'm using systemd, but really I'm using e.g. runtipi with an app store, web-based config and logging, and a super easy app template. I can point claude at any project with a docker release and in a couple minutes have it show up in my app store to install, run, simple data backups, etc.

Container manager on Synology. Don't have much choice. Some stuff can run native but it's easier to run containers.

The big issue with Synology is the really crappy db logs driver they use. If a container has been running for a while it takes an age to see the logs via the Web UI.

There is a solution though: https://github.com/telnetdoogie-labs/synology-docker

My server is running on NixOS and I went with systemd containers - really happy with my setup. It was not at all difficult to set it up with Claude

I personally use NixOS and a mix of systemd services and Quadlet-Nix for the few containers that have too many dependencies and moving parts. Works well.

Yes. NixOS running Podman containers is where I ended up after trying almost everything :)

Personally I use docker with portainer to handle the stacks/containers, have done for many years. I like it.

Docker containers are fine. I've moved between 5 NAS' over the years and docker has enabled it to be seemless.

rsync data directories. docker compose up. Done.

On the consumer or even prosumer nas products which have a semi-locked down system (ie Truenas/qnap/Synology). Technically you have root but as soon as you update the OS all/most of the changes end up being broken. Yes you could probably do something and deal with it. But personally I've spent too long babysitting it on the first and second nas that I no longer care.

Yes, especially if you running a multi-node setup. I'm still running on HashiCorp Nomad.

Why not have your cake and eat it too with quadlets?

For several years, Docker with portainer

Most of the time projects provide a ready to use compose file. I use dockge that provides a simple web interface for compose configs, so just paste in the compose file there and run it.