I don't know how they are today but I have an old af latitude e5430 that's been used hard and still works great.

We're opposites. I prefer the libre kernel and it's not in the repo for the OS I'm using. Takes like 12 hours to compile on my 2012 laptop. I just let it run overnight when there's an update. Been itching to throw guix on this and check it out.

A Serbian Film

I'm using artix with cosmic desktop. It's light enough for my 15 year old laptop. I haven't tried it yet, but Chimera Linux seems to fit what you're looking for.

music/artist/album/songs & use a various artists folder for soundtracks, etc..

I used an old laptop for a few years as a tvpc. Only problem with my laptop was that it was so old that the hdmi port could only ouput 1080p. Anything made in the past 12 years should be good. KDE big screen mode would probably be your best bet for making it easiest for non-technical users.

Switched to mpv a decade ago. Love the minimal UI and how snappy it is. Used VLC or MPC-HC on Windows. Moved to linux and used SMplayer or VLC until mpv came around.

Give 'The Straight Story' a watch if you aren't into the surreal stuff. I put it off for a long time because it sounded like it would be a boring g-rated disney movie. It's a great movie, one of his best.

First 2 seasons didn't do much for me. Liked the movie and season 3. Dune didn't do much for me either. Love just about everything else Lynch did.

Close to what I normally use. I prefer CoMaps instead of Organic, Mullvad VPN instead of Proton & Artix instead of Arch.

Cosmic. It's still a little buggy but getting better.

Libre kernel isn't in my distro's repo so I have to compile it every new version.