Like many others on here, I've finally had enough of the constant splintering of content into more and more separate services, each offering less value.
Anyway, so I have a new 8gb Pi4b on the way and I want to set up a "download box".
Ideally something fairly automated using NZBs. Years ago I used to use Sickbeard + SABNZBD+ on a small windows box. But I wanted a small, simple, ultra low power fanless box, so I've gone for a Pi4.
I'm aware of the *arr apps, although I haven't used any of them yet. I'm thinking a bunch of the *arr apps + SABNZBD+ and just keep using the Plex instance running on my Netgear NAS as the front end (got the lifetime Plex Pass). So I just need the download apps running in my Pi4 for now.
Question is: what do I put onto my Pi4 as the best base on top of which to build all of this?
Unfortunately I'm a Linux newb, so I want something fairly simple which can run all the apps I need and mount my NAS for storage.
What setup do people think is best for the Pi4?
Plenty of mainstream distros have versions designed with an RPi in mind. They should be designed lightweight for that purpose, but also the default version for rpi is called raspbian, and it tends to have the most support for rpi applications. If you're not committed to a particular distro for any reason that's a good place to start. All the software should work regardless.
If you want the whole setup to be headless (no screen), you'll have to do a lot of work in the command line. If you want a screen to play things on, well then just the regular OS version should be fine.
It's also possible to set it up with VNC so you have a headless server that can give you a desktop over the network: https://desertbot.io/blog/headless-raspberry-pi-4-remote-desktop-vnc-setup
Anything serving a desktop will be more resource intensive. I'm pretty sure the VNC option should have minimal impact whenever you're not connected to it.
Also though, no matter what you do, it's linux so you should accept that you'll need to spend some time in the command line to get things done. It's getting better with making things accessible via GUIs but I think it may always have a heavier reliance on the CLI because of the hacker nature of it.