HTPC and OS inquiry

[Venom20]

Hello all, I am currently building a computer for a friend (a real friend, not one of those hypothetical "friends") and I would like some assistance on an OS and applicable software.

To start, my friend is a Mac user. They recently changed from running PC's in their house to all Macs. Also, the entire household has iphones. This being said, he is not keen on putting Windows on his HTPC.

Firstly, I dislike Ubuntu (and all variants) so please, do not suggest this one. I have narrowed down my selection to three flavours.

Mandriva - I have personally used this one and I do enjoy it, but unsure how practical it is for a HTPC
Fedora - used it briefly a long while ago, but switched to mandriva (was still mandrake at the time I believe)
Mint - never used it, but I like the interface and am thinking that this one might do the job assuming I can locate some software.

For music playback and syncing to their iphones, I think that I would like to use Banshee. I have used it an enjoy it.
For DVR, I would like to try out MythTV. Never used it, but it was suggested.
For a media player, I would like to use XBMC. Assuming that it can do the job.

My main concerns are with playing back DVD's (which should be easy enough) and Blu-ray discs. I have absolutely no intention of ripping either, but playback is definitely needed. I know that hardware will most likely play a role in selecting an OS as well, but I have not decided on anything special as of yet so please assume that the hardware will function. Unless of course you have tried to set up a remote and had it utterly fail with an aforementioned OS.

Please feel free to suggest some software that I may not know of or for an HTPC task that I have not mentioned.

 

[postaled]

Mint - never used it, but I like the interface and am thinking that this one might do the job assuming I can locate some software.

Isn't Mint based off of Ubuntu?

 

[Venom20]

Isn't Mint based off of Ubuntu?

I have no idea, is this a rhetorical question?

clarification: I'm fairly certain that they are both debian-esque, but I do not have anything against debian. I just do not enjoy Ubuntu, kubuntu, xubuntu, etc

 

[lxskllr]

Mint is more like Ubuntu than Kubuntu is. It's Ubuntu for all intents and purposes.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

In 2005 I built a MythTV box running on Fedora and used it for a couple of years. It worked well, and I enjoyed it while I had it, I just lost interest in having an htpc (don't really watch much TV, though I am enjoying having Netflix via the Wii now).

I don't think it really matters which distro you choose, but I do recommend finding one that has all of the packages you wish to use available in the repos. It can be a pain to build some from source, tracking down dependencies, and not having automatic updates. You may even want to consider using Mythdora (a little long in the tooth) or LinHES (formerly KnoppMyth).

 

[Red Squirrel]

My current HTPC has Ubuntu and XBMC on it. You don't actually see Ubuntu though as XBMC just loads right away. I bought a Windows 7 remote, had to do some minor fiddling around, and got it to work in Linux within an hour or so. It's pure awesomeness. It's essentially an appliance, not so much a computer. My current one is ready to use within 10 seconds of pressing the power button. When I'm done I can hit power on the remote and it's shut down within 2 seconds. The actual data is on my server in the basement, so nothing is actually stored on that box. I know you said you don't want to do Ubuntu, but remember that a properly setup HTPC won't even have a visible OS, idealy. It's kinda like an ATM machine, those run Windows or Linux in the back end but you don't see that.

The nice thing with Ubuntu is the very fast start/shut time. I'm sure there's other distros that are equal or maybe even better in that aspect though. But the more popular it is, the easier it should be to get stuff to work.

 

[Binky]

If the ability to play blu-ray is key, you may be stuck with Windows7. To my knowledge, there is no simple way to play blu-ray discs in any Linux environment.

 

[Venom20]

hmm, I was afraid of that. I'll have to double check on the blu-ray situation