Personally, I use Kodi for that. It works very well with minimal keyboard and no mouse (though it can handle both), so much so that I've run it for years using only an IR remote.
This.
Using a CEC link will make things even more simple, but that might involve additional hardware. Those raspberry thingies have native CEC on hdmi. For x86 you might have to look at some extra hardware.
And of course, Kodi is an example of a 10 foot interface.
Awesome, I will look more into that!
I always have strange lag problems when I try to use it, even on powerful hardware. I think the audio visualization stuff is just buggy because going in and out of fullscreen takes ages and often crashes or freezes.
Kodi works well.
Or if you do more gaming-things Steam's Big Picture mode.
OpenGamepadUI works well as a FOSS alternative to Steam if you'd like that as well.
KDE has Plasma BigScreen. It even maps remotes to regular common keybinds so you can navigate apps without native support for that kind of use.
I haven't seen it in the wild and I don't think there are many apps that do integrate very well with it, but it exists to mess with.
Kodi is ideal for an HTPC
It is good if you watch TV or listen to music. I especially like kore
Flex Launcher.
@TheMonkeyLord #AntiMicroX is a good choice for mapping controllers to keyboard/mouse functions. I use it daily to control my computer from a flight-stick when I just want to lay back and watch stuff.
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