A typical Linux distro should be able to mount and read any reasonable filesystem, including NTFS. It should generally be plug-and-play if you want to put in another drive or plug in a USB drive, then copy files in the ordinary way.
Very easy pics and vids are all plug and play. You may need to get some PDF readers and such but that can be gained easy enough.
PoopOS is another candidate. Touchscreen works properly out of the box from my experience and no shitty Snap installed by default. Instead you get its less evil cousin Flatpak.
Can confirm. Frequently pull out the HDD in my windows machine and hook it up to my linux laptop with a USB enclosure thing to transfer files and its just plug and play, don't have to mess around with anything. I used to dual boot a while ago on desktop and was similarly easy, linux could just mount my windows drive to access files on there.
Fedora Server (my recommended pick since it has a Web GUI), OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu Server are all great for hosting almost any server application you need.
There should be no issue mounting and doing work on an NTFS drive, you're making the switch right as NTFS support is being added to the kernel rather than being run through userspace. This had oddities occur such as being unable to run video games via Proton/WINE if it sat on a NTFS partition. Will this change with the new kernel feature? No idea, just keep it in mind if you're going to run the Proton route and wondering why your stuff launches and instantly fails through Steam.
Ubuntu Server uses Snaps which is a pain in the ass for new users.
My recommendation is Debian, it just got a new release so the various packages no longer date back into the Jurassic Period. Just keep in mind what you're planning on doing requires a bit of work done in the terminal and if you're brand new to Linux this may be very frustrating.
I don't mind having to learn new things and deal with some frustrating shit, it's mainly just a project to make sure this old machine doesn't sit here collecting dust.
Ubuntu Server is fantastic. It has been my go-to for when I want to pop a server up and have it working with minimal effort. In general, Ubuntu is super hard to go wrong with. It's my #1 distro I recommend for anyone new to Linux. It is built off Debian and a lot of other friendly distros like Pop! are built off Ubuntu. Another distro I liked was CentOS, but it uses a different package manager than Ubuntu does. I generally stick with Debian distros because I don't have to remember to use different commands for downloading stuff from the repos.
Okay, if he isn't a new Linux user and he wants a good distro for hosting servers then Debian is a fine option, but if you are recommending it for new users then that is a very bad recommendation.
This is pretty much the best advantage of using Ubuntu. If you find a tutorial online, it will be geared towards Ubuntu since so many people use it. If you have a question, then someone has probably already asked it on Google. Plus the IRC is pretty active and helpful.
You can easily uninstall the few preinstalled snap packages and snapd after a fresh install. An extra step but it's not that difficult. A new user has to learn how to manage the server anyway.
It's just Debian with KDE and a few preinstalled packages like Tor and qTox among other basic ones that kde comes with by the looks of it.
To be honest, Majaro seems more trouble than it's worth. I really like EndeavourOS, it's pretty much vanilla Arch with a graphical installer.
