I actually went back and had a look at a few of the top results and I have a feeling a lot were AI written Sandtraps. Several were very similar “Install your favorite Linux then <copy and paste from Plex web site on how to install Plex>”
Makes it had for a newbie who doesn’t know what they don’t know so can’t ask the right question.
The Mint install works fine now, I made a lot of mistakes and took a while to get head around the folder structure and permissions but once I am more comfortable next time I’ll try something a little more headless I think, though playing around I reckon I’d be happy with Mint as a daily machine (if only my job wasn’t coding Windows apps :/)