From the use-cases you have described, yeah, I would have to concur with Mark & Russell here - go for the desktop version. 

You can then install & run whatever server-side applications as you want on this Desktop PC.  Want to get your hands dirty by doing most of your stuff in the command line / bash - no worries - you can always bring up the Terminal Emulator ...

For an Ubuntu-based installation that I set up for myself, or for my friends, I often turn on the UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) that usually comes with Ubuntu-based Distros.  And, I tend to prefer the GUI-version (GUFW) - which you can easily install via sudo apt install gufw.  

After installing the GUFW, I would then switch its status to On, and set the rules (Incoming=Deny, Outgoing=Allow).  I find that even with these default settings, I could still run most of my apps, including several of the popular web conferencing out there - e.g. Google Meet, Zoom, BBB, etc.  But of course, if you were to play with some of the server applications that are not using the standard ports like http/https, then you may need to tinker a bit with the GUFW firewall rules, or temporarily disabling the UFW altogether.

H.T.H.

Regards,
Wen



On Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 2:31 PM Russell Coker via luv-main <luv-main@luv.asn.au> wrote:
On Monday, 28 December 2020 2:22:22 PM AEDT Andrew Greig via luv-main wrote:
> My activities include email, browsing, photo editing, watching the
> "University of YouTube", various social media.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ServerFaq#What.
27s_the_difference_between_desktop_and_server.3F

According to the FAQ the main difference is the server version not having the
GUI stuff.  You can install the server version and install the GUI stuff from
the Internet later, but it's probably going to be easier to install it all
right from the start.  So use the desktop version.

--
My Main Blog         http://etbe.coker.com.au/
My Documents Blog    http://doc.coker.com.au/



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