> For some Raspberry Pi (ideally with 8-16GB RAM) + SSD can be enough
Wut? For many, a Raspberry Pi with 1 GB RAM and the regular sdcard can be enough, you really don't need to go fancy if you don't want to run anything particularly heavy. Or if it's cpu-intensive then you might need the newest Pi or something even beefier but still only the lowest RAM and smallest/slowest storage options (like for WordPress). As you say, it depends on needs
I always recommend using an old laptop to start out with because you've already got it anyway and it's already low power yet very powerful: if it can run graphical software from 2020 then it'll be fine as server until 2030 for anything standard like a web server (with half a dozen websites and databases, such as a link shortener, some data explorers, and my personal site), torrent box, VPN server, mail server, git server, IRC bouncer, Windows VM for some special software, chat bot, etc. all at once. At least, that's what I currently run on my 2012 laptop and the thing is idle nearly the whole time. Other advantages of a laptop include a built-in KVM console and UPS, at least while you still trust the old battery (one should detach and recycle that component after some years)
I don't know. I had run into problems building some packages for node and builing another tools with Cargo (i think) with 4 GB RAM. And if you going to experiment with containers, etc. I would definitely recommend starting at least at 8GB for a peace of mind. It doesn't cost a kidney nowadays.
Wut? For many, a Raspberry Pi with 1 GB RAM and the regular sdcard can be enough, you really don't need to go fancy if you don't want to run anything particularly heavy. Or if it's cpu-intensive then you might need the newest Pi or something even beefier but still only the lowest RAM and smallest/slowest storage options (like for WordPress). As you say, it depends on needs
I always recommend using an old laptop to start out with because you've already got it anyway and it's already low power yet very powerful: if it can run graphical software from 2020 then it'll be fine as server until 2030 for anything standard like a web server (with half a dozen websites and databases, such as a link shortener, some data explorers, and my personal site), torrent box, VPN server, mail server, git server, IRC bouncer, Windows VM for some special software, chat bot, etc. all at once. At least, that's what I currently run on my 2012 laptop and the thing is idle nearly the whole time. Other advantages of a laptop include a built-in KVM console and UPS, at least while you still trust the old battery (one should detach and recycle that component after some years)