Both are viable. Ubuntu is based on Debian. It may come with some additional bloat. Really it comes down to what you feel comfortable with. Neither will be a bad choice.

That’s a fair point to bring up. You’re right that it is an investment that has paid for itself in terms of a streaming service. Much better than hooking a laptop up to a TV and playing files directly, forgetting which episode you are on, or where you stopped watching a movie when you want to resume.

My thought with Jellyfin is that I don’t generally watch outside my home network. I have sent invites to friends to watch my library, but none do. So most of the features I don’t use at all. I could have saved myself the money, learned how Jellyfin works, and probably set it up exactly how I currently use Plex by now.

I bought a plex pass about 5 years ago. I figured it would be a reasonable long term investment. I am starting to think I should have just gone with Jellyfin to start with.