INTERACT FORUM

More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 21 for Windows => Topic started by: theoctavist on January 29, 2016, 10:29:46 pm

Title: repurposing older pc for audio only jriver HTPC...what OS??
Post by: theoctavist on January 29, 2016, 10:29:46 pm: it is *ONLY* for playing music. maybe word processing(I am a writer)

what OS to use???
Title: Re: repurposing older pc for audio only jriver HTPC...what OS??
Post by: fooze on January 30, 2016, 02:54:34 am: Depends on the computer's specs and your ability/familiarity with the different OS's out there. If you were familiar you probably wouldn't be asking this question though ;)

To grossly oversimplify - Linuxes like Ubuntu or Debian are free, work better on older/slower hardware, and have a steeper learning curve; Windows is easier to use, better supported and more expensive.

If the old computer already has Windows 7 or above, just use that. If it is old enough to have XP, you might get away with running Linux and MC on it.
Title: Re: repurposing older pc for audio only jriver HTPC...what OS??
Post by: Arindelle on January 30, 2016, 04:42:45 am: I also think it depends on what functions you can live without ... I "need" theater view for example, neither Mac nor Linux has it, so that is still a deal breaker for me until they do. If you are going to control it via JRemote or only use Standard View you wouldn't care about that ... you might just want to find out what functions have not been ported to the other OSs. (I'm not sure, myself. but there must be a post on this somewhere for MAC, for Linux you might have to ask)

JRiver seems to always support XP, but will they support it indefinitely ?? I'd load Win7 if going with Windows, but if you have a free XP license it still works
Title: Re: repurposing older pc for audio only jriver HTPC...what OS??
Post by: imugli on January 30, 2016, 06:40:42 am: If you're only PLAYING music (not ripping, don't need Theater view or TV or CD playback etc), word processing, web browsing etc. - on an older machine I'd go ubuntu every day of the week.

If that's all you're doing, the learning curve is nothing - ubuntu comes with LibreOffice preinstalled for free and it will open word docs without problems most of the time. '

MC is now pretty stable in Linux, but as mentioned doesn't support ripping or Theater View or TV functionality.

If it's a 32bit machine, Chrome is about to drop support, but FF and Chromium browser will continue to.

I run Linux as my daily driver on all my home computers except the HTPC (and on an old 32bit machine) and it's rock solid.

(FWIW I run Windows and MacOS for work, so there's no fanboy thing going on here :-) )
Title: Re: repurposing older pc for audio only jriver HTPC...what OS??
Post by: glynor on January 30, 2016, 05:38:12 pm: Quote from: Arindelle on January 30, 2016, 04:42:45 am
I'm not sure, myself. but there must be a post on this somewhere for MAC

Stickied to the top of the Mac board:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=97363.0
Title: Re: repurposing older pc for audio only jriver HTPC...what OS??
Post by: Awesome Donkey on January 30, 2016, 07:37:46 pm: If you want Theater View and other features not in the Mac or Linux builds currently, you'll need to use Windows for the time being.