Prior to installing ZUI, I was on using openHABian images for OH. I installed docker on top of that for ZUI because it was the recommended approach. My original notes from Sep 2023 (somewhat dated now) are here. I’m not an expert but didn’t find it that hard.
Today I have completely moved over to docker based setup. My Zwave network is split. I have a OH-test/ZUI system on Rpi4 - 2gb and a production OH/ZUI system on Rpi5 - 4GB. Both were started with a Rpi ‘lite’ image on an SD card and then I installed docker using the apt repository. The OH docker documents are here and here. (the last site shows 31K pulls in the last week, so I don’t think it is that rare - if that is accurate). However, I agree it can be a little confusing since there are so many options. There is also at least one forum tutorial here.
On my systems the Rpi4 average 1-5% CPU and the programs (Docker, OH5.0M2 and ZUI) use .75 out of 1.8 GB. On the Rpi5 CPU runs between 1-10% (when the IP camera binding is recording). The programs (Docker, OH5.0M2, ZUI, MQTT and MySQL) use 1.7 GB out of 3.95. Unrelated to your questions, I did have to figure out Samba without the aid of openHABian and I used a RPi clone application to transfer the SD card contents to SSD’s.
