@DonnyDave:
Funny enough, I was just looking at a u-tube video a few days ago about alternative operating systems available for RPi's, may well have been the video you refered to, will attach a link in case anyone else is interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jrVyFEvYT0You can have a go with a Raspberry Pi for a very modest outlay, for example a RPi ZW for about £10, if you wish to add a case, about £5 extra, should get away with a 5V. phone charger for powering the Zero, my remote units are powered from their respective modem/routers USB-2 ports.
Can run RPi's "headless" to your desktop or laptop PC, Windows, Linux or Mac, so don't need to bother about a VDU, keyboard or mouse.
Only other requirement is a micro SD card, all the software is readily available on line and completely free.
However, be warned, RPi's can become addictive !