joyofpeanuts

If you want to simply make a folder containing media accessible to all on the network, I suggest to install minidlna, a UPnP server. All you need is to have the media folders accessible by minidlna. Otherwise the config is a simple text file.

See this: https://www.debian.org/releases/bullseye/amd64/ch03s04.en.html Minimum 1Gb, preferably 2 for a desktop.

Debian with the choice of LXDE as window manager. Debian offers high configurability to remove any heavy component.