I have a couple of older local servers (running Gentoo)...no need for a GUI...other remote servers are either UNIX or Red Hat /Apache
As for a suggestion...for a desktop system there are several worthy distributions available with either of the most popular user interfaces...
...One distro in particular (Debian based) is 'Knoppix'...what makes this flavor special is it has the ability to allow the user to customize the desktop/programs etc., etc...then create an ISO image of the installation that is bootable...
Burn the ISO to a CD* or DVD *...now you have a "live (bootable)CD/DVD" that you can take anywhere...on just about any computer with a laser disk drive...boot to the CD/DVD and you basically have your home desktop computer anywhere on the fly...Including saved docs, e-mails, Internet bookmarks etc., etc...
**....by using a simple tool like 'Rufus' (disk image converter) you can move the image to a USB flash drive or SD card...!
I always thought there was cutting edge technology and bleeding edge technology right in front of it. I worked 27 years on the cutting and bleeding edge.
Now that I've been retired for 10 years I've cut back to the scab edge, where the bleeding edge has hardened and started to heal.