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[swiv3d]

I must admit that linux is looking more and more attractive as the basis for a media based system, I guess I got fed up early on when the GUI's were basic to say the least and writing lines of jibberish to achieve a simple task was the norm. Do you have a preferred linux distro you would recommend?

[mwillems]

I must admit that linux is looking more and more attractive as the basis for a media based system, I guess I got fed up early on when the GUI's were basic to say the least and writing lines of jibberish to achieve a simple task was the norm. Do you have a preferred linux distro you would recommend?

I'd recommend starting with Debian or Ubuntu (which is based on Debian).  Ubuntu is probably generally easier to get started with as it's targeted at regular desktop users, and has fairly robust graphical utilities and pre-configuration.  Debian is a little less easy to get started with, but has the advantage of being the specific distro that JRiver targets and provides support for.  Debian is also extremely stable with a 2-year default release cycle (although Ubuntu does offer LTS releases as well).

I personally use Debian for all my servers and HTPCs.  For personal desktop use, I use Arch, but I wouldn't recommend it if you don't like arcane jibberish 

[swiv3d]

Cheers I will have a look into it.

[Awesome Donkey]

In addition to mwillems' suggestions of Debian and Ubuntu, if you're coming from Windows and want more of a "Windows-esk" look to start out with in a Linux distro, I'd also add Linux Mint to the list of recommendations.

[carlismysecondname]

I was wondering how light Debian is compared to something like Lubuntu or Xubuntu and found out their image file takes less than 300MB of space. Whoah. That is tiny... I think I'll try it out on the oldest laptop I have lying around, a 1.8Ghz single core machine. I highly doubt JRiver would run well enough on it though but we shall see.

*actually that was the net installer version so am not sure about the total space it'll occupy post installation yet.

[antenna]

... want more of a "Windows-esk" look to start out with in a Linux distro, I'd also add Linux Mint to the list of recommendations.

I use Linux Mint on my laptop for the reason that it has more of a "Windows" feel than many other Linux distributions.

However, for something that is more of an infrastructure device (e.g., media server), I'd lean more towards the Debian distributions that others have recommended.  I've had fewer issues with Debian than I have had with Mint.

Of course, YMMV.   

[mwillems]

*actually that was the net installer version so am not sure about the total space it'll occupy post installation yet.

It depends highly on what you choose to install.  You can choose XFCE, or openbox, or LXQT during the software selection portion of the debian installer and you'll get a lightweight desktop environment, or if you choose "default" you'll get Gnome which is more resource intensive.  All are equally supported by debian, there are no DE-specific "spins" of debian like xubuntu; you just pick the DE you want during installation.  You can also choose to install only basic utilities and then build up the DE from there if you want something really lightweight. 

It's unlikely that there will be any meaningful difference in resource usage between say, Xubuntu and choosing XFCE in the Debian installer.

[carlismysecondname]

Don't like LXQT so maybe I'll stick with XFCE. I've been unable to update this machine without getting errors the past couple of months mainly due to me running a big update at the same time installing a bunch of other stuff on another terminal. It's my fault, of course, so a reinstall is long overdue now anyhows.

[logan9778]

Linux Mint is nice.  The problem now is, is Linux going to keep going?  Have you guys seen all the turmoil going on with the linux community?  Torvald is basically "on leave until further notice", and supposedly from what I have read, his 2nd in command? was basically kicked out for "discrimination".  Something about a bunch of SJW's, who have no clue how to program, tricking them into joining the "CoC", which basically says they can call anyone they want sexist, racist, transphobic, or whatever, and have them kicked out.  You guys should google for it.

A lot of Linux guru's are saying they should just stop updating Linux until people come to their senses.

Some people think the Dark Hand of Microsoft is behind this, as for some reason, they joined the Linux Consortium about 2 years ago.  Why would they do this?  Unless it is to try and grab linux code / and or take down linux.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5VvJiNUCIA&lc=z23qxvawnlncwxook04t1aokg4n0ft0eocirislexjovbk0h00410.1537930660357471

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTeXwFKWci8

[Awesome Donkey]

Of course Linux is going to keep going on - it's an open-source project after all! Linus Torvalds is on "hiatus" for the remainder of the 4.19 cycle but he should be back for the 4.20/5.0 cycle. Greg Kroah-Hartman is handling the rest of the 4.19 cycle, and he's more than capable of handling it while Linus is on hiatus. While I'm not going to go into the details why he's taking a hiatus or why Linux adopted a code of conduct or put on my tinfoil hat to speculate why all this is happening, I will say that it's pretty surprising to see Linus suddenly do this. Over the years Linus has come off as a bit abrasive at times when speaking his mind (his comments about Nvidia are legendary) so him learning to deal with others' opinions without getting into arguments might be a good thing. That's said, ultimately I think that's he's the type of person who's very passionate about his work however like I said I don't see the point to get into it more deeply. Let's just wait and see what happens after Linus comes back.

Microsoft couldn't take down Linux even if they wanted to. It's VERY hard, if not impossible to kill an open-source project as big and important as Linux is. Microsoft has plenty of problems on their own; slowly killing Windows in the perception of users' minds with showstopper bugs and lack of proper QA testing.