I recently just built a portable HTPC with the intent on running openelec on it. but after i assembled it I realized that I would also like to use it for very minor gaming while im at my parents house (games like minecraft, dont starve, antichamber, ect) as well as a minecraft server while im home. as far as hardware goes itll work but software is where the issue comes in. Ive been told that most of the games that i plan on playing are based around unbuntu and possibly wont work for openelec (the peopple who told me this know only a littel more about linux than i do and i know almost nothing) I wouldnt mind running unbuntu but i really like how openelec starts up directly to XBMC and very quickly. I was wondering if theres a way to do that with unbuntu (i do have a spare 30GB SSD) or if my friends are wrong and steam games will run just fine on openelec.
my second question is im looking for a remote control or very small wireless keyboard/mouse combo thats easily portable and works with linux specifically XMBC. all the ones i could find were windows based that you had to run a special program to run with linux.
Ubuntu is a great distro, though the company that is responsible for it has some unscrupulous business practices, you will need to remove some spyware that comes with the distro. Mint is based on ubuntu, and you will hve no trouble running steam and minecraft on it. It is also slightly faster than ubuntu, and has no spyware, but it does have more bugs, and is less new user friendly. Linux lite is also decent, and comes with steam pre installed, but it is not as popular, so if you encounter a problem, you might have a hard time finding someone who knows how to fix it. Most of the blazing fast distros like elementary and peppermint are not designed with new users in mind, so I recommend getting some experience with a tier one distro like ubuntu or mint, before moving on to one of those.
well having to remove spyware from a brand new install of an OS really doesnt appeal to me. ive been told about somthing called XBMCBuntu do you happen to know anything about that?
Get debian 7 the most stable linux there is and it will be fast http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
It is very difficult to run steam on debian, so it does not really suit your needs.
As for XBMCBuntu, that is just anouther media center OS, it will not be usefull for general use
so unfortunately it sweems my only options are either A go with dual booting or B go with windows.