Quick questions

[Zvoni]

As an alternative to using a virtual environment to run Linux (which is pretty good advise) you could also opt of running linux on a separate machine in you (own) LAN to get a more 1:1 experience (or run the VM on another machine)

Although perhaps not the most efficient solution (support is usually limited) it is pretty cheap to get f.e. a banana pi for a couple of bucks and install Linux on it. There are also  SBC's that have a x86 processor these days (instead of arm/risc).

It is perhaps a bit more convoluted but you would be able to get your hands dirty all the way and doing so with a big splash.

Correct.
Especially considering you can get real bargains buying second hand from Companies that do "upgrades".
I still remember getting 4 DELL OptiPlex 3010 including RAM-Modules, Harddisks etc. for under 100 € total.
Yeah, definitely NOT the Formula 1 of Hardware, but during developing its not about connection-speed, it's about "stability" resp. "bug-free".
As i wrote above: I didn't care that those Queries against MySQL on FreeBSD took some 20 seconds. i was interested if it works!

Install whichever OS is your target, install nginx, whatever.... Full steam ahead.

It doesn't matter, if "your" such local Webserver takes 20 seconds to display a Page, it's about if it shows the correct stuff

[MarkMLl]

I still remember getting 4 DELL OptiPlex 3010 including RAM-Modules, Harddisks etc. for under 100 € total.

Running on a 7020 for which I paid a bit more, particularly after disc upgraid plus extra USB, media slots to support preparing SD-Cards etc.

However, while there is a tendency to say "you only need an old machine for Linux" the reality, particularly if you're running a half-competent desktop environment, is much less forgiving. This machine has 32Gb RAM and is on the good side of adequate, it replaced a machine with 4Gb which- after having the latest Debian installed- was very much inadequate.

/But/ the old 4Gb machine is now driving a 3D printer and various other things quite happily: it has a desktop installed but almost everything can be done remotely (HTML-based remote control). In all probability a system with a web server and WebMin (or similar, i.e. again using HTML-based remote control) would again be adequate for a modest amount of traffic, and if it was adequate for WebMin it would be more than adequate for SSH in the hands of an experienced user.

And subject to space considerations plus the provisioning of screens etc., at this stage having a "real" machine is going to be far more use than a VM etc. because there would be far less risk of contention for "well known" network ports, strange routing configurations and so on.

Just my 2d-worth. But I've been doing this stuff for a long time.

MarkMLl