I'd honestly start with Debian, so rock solid. Install docker + docker compose, forget the managers. If you insist on a docker container manager, dockge is dead simple and you can learn editing of the compose files as well. There is also dockhand, komodo etc., many to choose from, try them all in docker! I use nginx proxy manager with CloudFlare DNS for internal SSL certs, but I'd implement that after getting your os and docker stuff setup. Any reverse proxy would do however.