LibreElec Kodi Box vs NAS PC Box

Speed of navigation in a large library is mostly about CPU and I/O performance of the device where the library DB files and artwork thumbnail caches reside. Using a less art-intensive skin and lower resolution graphics has a major impact (as less data to be fetched and rendered to the screen) and using a better CPU and particularly SSD/nvme storage (so access times are lower) are also important. I've also found that GUI scroll speed is often dictated by the remote device; benchmark things with a 'keyboard' not an IR device where slow(er) key-repeat timings can make the GUI appear sluggish even when compute performance is good.

Converting the PC that's storing the media into a NAS will probably improve playback start times (as more efficient network, etc.) but will not improve browse times as Kodi stores the DB/thumbs on the playback device, not the sharing device. The partial exception being with you use an SQL database (which is likely on the sharing device/NAS) but then artwork access still has more impact than DB query times.

Although in the period 1990-2000 I dedicated ten years of my life developing applications for factories and industrial manufacturing processes, in 2019 I knew very little about Linux and since I was interested in satellite television I started with a TV Box S912 and the CoreELEC operating system. That was a discovery for me, I had finally found a very stable operating system, safe from the errors of desktop Linux operating systems, and also the discovery of docker virtual services, which allow services to be transferred from one machine or operating system, to another, without changing anything.

When in 2020 I decided to install a home server I had no doubts: it would be a cheap mini PC with the LibreELEC operating system. I am very grateful to CoreELEC and LibreELEC for being the tool that has allowed me to learn Linux.

I would not change LibreELEC for any other Linux x86 operating system. It is true that LE has many limitations but in return it offers you stability, my LE server has been on for 22 months, restarting automatically every day, without any problem, keeping backup copies of PCs and smartphones, managing our VPN remote access and cameras security, local and remote, saving our documents and our multimedia library and giving us impressive television services even when we are traveling.

As the development times for stable LibreELEC updates are long, I am preparing the alternative of replacing my LE server with an Ubuntu* server with updated media drivers, ssh and samba services, and docker services exported unchanged from LE; all this works now. Since this will be a server I'm thinking of replacing Kodi with a Windows remote desktop service. Obviously, I would never install a NAS server.

* An Ubuntu server also has bugs and errors, I have seen them in the docker service of the snap library, to solve this I always follow the installation recommendations of the software creator, and not the recommendations of third parties.

In short, stick with LibreELEC or create your own server.