Not a total linux noob, plenty of experience using them for servers @ work. Less experience with using them with GUIs and for other computing use.
I’ve got an intel nuc i3 that I use as a media pc. It doesn’t do (or need to do) more than allow me to browse files and play videos (mkv, mp4, just the usual fare). I don’t really need or want something like Kodi. I just have the stuff I want to play on my NAS and smb or nfs mount to get at it. Specs aren’t great, but it doesn’t need to run 4k, so it’s been fine. Perhaps I use clementine once in a blue moon to play a few mp3s when hosting a party or dinner. (And I toy around with the IR reader of the nuc so I can make my own media buttons on a programmable remote, but that’s not super important.)
That’s pretty much it.
Currently I run Ubuntu on it, but it takes so long to boot. What are your distro recommendations? Not afraid to tinker, I doubt I’ll ever become an Archlinux user.
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Everyone is going to recommend their distro :P.
My new home is openSUSE tumbleweed. So you can have a stable hybrid server/gaming desktop :)
Use Bazzite. It’s unbreakable and comes with lots of easy installable packages. And I say that as a looong-time Debian fan.
Well if you are familiar with servers I’d can’t stop myself from shilling the setup i use, you install mint, then you set up i3 as the window manager, 500mb of ram on idle, I set it up in a 4gb ram laptop and runs beautifully, stable and never breaks too.
For something like this, I would just run Debian. (Use whatever DE you’re comfortable with)
Mount the NAS share through fstab and install mpv as a media player.
I think this is the way I’m going to go. I think KDE Plasma seems pretty cool, maybe Big Screen it.
I have a super old lenovo nuc that I use for the same purpose. I ended up putting Linux mint with xfce on it and it works great. Not the fastest for sure but def usable