I have a spare laptop running Linux Mint. I would like to try running my own instance and sharing it with a few users to help out and for the experience. Below are the specs. Do you think it will be powerful enough, and if so, how many users would it be able to handle? I could restrict uploading of media if that would make a considerable impact.
Dell Inspiron 15-5000 CPU: Intel Core i5-5200U, 2 cores, 4 threads RAM: 8GB Storage: SanDisk SSD Plus 1TB
Probably a dumb question, but how does hosting your own instance work? I’d love to help but do I then need to provide content? Or is it more of an admin type situation?
No. You manage the server, and manage people registering. If it is enabled, they create communities (I.e. subreddits) and provide content. They can also use other server communities via federation.