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After the death of the SSD in my old Athelon powered HP desktop I bought a newer Intel i5.
I bought a 500G Dell SSD to put into the HP and use it as a media server.
As I don't have a Windows backup disk I would like to try a Linux installation.
Any advice on which flavor and how to go about the install.
Expecting to hear from Llondel and TGG at the least.

PP

Linux Mint is probably the best general purpose Linux distributions for someone who has not used Linux before. Once you have Mint up and running then install “kodi” to provide media server capability. Mint comes with several desktop themes such as Cinnamon and Mate, but don’t worry particularly which to install, they are all functionally similar.

To install, go to Distrowatch.com and download a disk iso image. Download Rufus from https://sourceforge.net/projects/rufus.mirror/ Rufus will enable you to write a bootable USB drive with the Mint live disk image you downloaded earlier. Boot the HP machine from the USB drive and you can then install Mint from the Mint live disk desktop.

Yes, I'd start with Linux Mint. I don't like the Cinnamon or Mate versions, so I install the XFCE version and then install KDE over the top.

That should have gotten you completely confused, but if it's an older machine then XFCE is probably the better variant to try first. You can run them from a USB drive before doing a permanent install, so have a play with the different desktop options before picking one to install. Also checks that your network and sound drivers work OK.

I have installed the Raspbian flavour of Debian on a pensioned-off PC recently, it was quite easy, but I chose it as I was already using the same OS on the raspberry pi computers for my smart home project, and it made developing and testing the applications easier. I am planning to install it on my main PC when Windoze 10 has got on my tits too many times.

I agree: Linux Mint....