How does it compare to Gitea?

Get started with a Linux server and then I'd go with something like Nextcloud in a Docker container. Then do reverse proxy, nginx on the host is very easy. You can get and update SSL certs with certbot (Let's Encrypt).

I have an MSI laptop and MSI motherboard in a PC. Didn't have any specific compatibility issues, and I'm running Linux on both. You can update the BIOS with an usb stick straight from the BIOS. There's not really anything that 100% requires Windows.

Garuda works differently. You use garuda-update instead of pacman, and it takes care of just about everything for you. So, for example, if you have something like needing to uninstall a package because it was split (like linux firmware), garuda-update just takes care of that for you (after they update the scripts, which takes at most a week usually)

+1 for Garuda. It's nice that they have their own way of updating (garuda-update), which also handles situations like this one. It was very satisfying to not have to do anything when the linux-firmware change happened a couple of weeks back.

Oh, also snapshots by default are a chef's kiss