Hi,

I have some old hardware around that I want to build a system just for the purpose of playing music connected to an amp.

Since I'm knew to Linux (except trying a few LiveCDs), I don't know which distro suits what I need.

Need:
- MP3 player with simple features like browse artist, album etc
- Playlist
- Quick browser kind of like menu so I can see all folders
- Can attach a picture for each album (not essential but would be nice )
- Quick boot up and ready to use and play
- In future I might want access and use with a remote control (if possible) or via wifi.
- Distro needs to be suitable for < 500mhz

Basically don't need no Word processor or anything. I've tried Geexbox and Movix before but they are not what I'm looking for except I like the fact that for both distros there is no "desktop" and is ready to use.

From what I gather, I know you can take out whatever you want and rebuild a distro, but to me it is so confusing.
Obviously I also don't know how to install Linux as well so I'm looking for simpler solution if there is one.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks.

If it were me, I'd start with a lightweight distro like DSL (DamnSmallLinux), Puppy, Feather or SLAX. They are all live CDs with HD install options so you can get used to them as a live CD, pick one you like and install it to your HD. Then install MPD on it which is a media player with a client-server setup. Once that is up and running, you can install clients on any networked PCs and control it from anywhere in your house

Thanks for posting.

I'll try DSL. I'd like to install MPD with the Gnome Music Player client (Gmpc) but on the website it says" gmpc requires GTK+ 2.8 or better", (might be a stupid question) do I need to install Gnome or just the GTK+ ?

Just GTK, I use gmpc here without Gnome installed and it works fine. Without gnome-vfs you lose the ability to play streams but who cares? Just specify --disable-gnome at configure time and you should be right

Excellent, I'll try it soon. Thanks for the help