I know "Which distro is best for me?" is asked about 39578 times a day, but I'm hoping this one might be unique enough to warrant a new topic:

I'm getting myself a new computer (should be arriving any day now... ), and I'd like to turn the old one into an HTPC - that is, a Home Theater PC. Basically this means I want to hook it up to my TV and stereo to use for MP3's, DiVX movies, and video game emulation. Here's the setup:

AMD Athlon 750 MHz (slot A)
Gigabyte 7IXE motherboard with AMD 750 chipset
384 MB PC133 ram (running at 100)
15 GB 5400rpm HDD
Generic GeForce2 MX400 64 MB with S-Video out
ESS 1969 sound card
Creative 4x2x24 CD-RW drive (don't need to burn anything, just want to ensure good media-reading compatibility)

Here's the features I'm looking for: included multimedia software (unlike Redhat...), easy Samba support (like Redhat...), and preferably Fluxbox/Blackbox or some other resource-light window manager included (of course I can always get these myself, but it'd be nice to have it right away).

Or...and don't flame me for asking...should I just throw Windows 98 or XP on there and be done with it? The reason I might do this is because my roommates, who are not computer-savvy and are used to Windows, will be using this box as well.

Thanks!

most htpc software is very easy to use. As for the distro, any will work. I like slack and suse, but if ease is the key, I think Knoppmyth would probably be the best cause its designed for the specific use of an HTPC. A lot of ppl who've told me about their htpc's are using debian. I've never tried it and likely won't as I have my favorites already.

This is looking more like a media server since you want samba to share the music/vids. I'd suggest cutting back on services running as recording on that 750 will probably push 60-70% utilization. Also the 15GB ain't going to go very far. I'd say an 80GB should be added to that list. Actually it doesn't say that you are going to record TV so you should be ok for a mp3/divx player. Storage will still be tight.


Did that answer anything?