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Comment by afavour | Hacker News Reader

Does Apple sell data on what I’m watching to third parties?

Linux is not a viable option for TV for the vast majority of users. There are no sit back, remote driven apps for the services they use.

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I drive literally everything on my Linux TVs with a only a remote. I do not even attach a regular keyboard or mouse. All my guests use it fine too.

KDE Plasma Bigscreen?

JellyFin or Plex. Personally i just use a Linux Mint desktop connected to the TV instead. Web browser for streaming and VLC for downloaded videos.

But JellyFin and Plex exist for people who don’t want that.

What the parent is saying is that the desktop versions of those programs are not remote friendly and the interface is not ideally scaled for 10-foot use. What you want are the Android TV versions, running on Waydroid or an x86 build of Android TV. See my other reply.

I just run stock ubuntu with an airmouse, freetube, a browser, and kodi. Works just fine on my projectors and tvs around my house for me and even non technical guests.

Yes, and I have done the same for a long time. It works, and the browser is key when you don't have native apps. But I recently spent some tokens on an Android x86_64 TV build with ARM support and it is far better than a Linux DE with the scaling cranked up. It's all scaled correctly, the UI can be navigated with the D-Pad alone, and all the apps are also designed that way. It's a massive improvement over a UI primarily designed for keyboards and mice.

Jellyfin and Plex cannot stream from major streaming providers. Yes, I know the answer is pirating content but that’s a complete paradigm shift compared to what most people are used to. It’s an absolutely enormous extra requirement when you’re suggesting someone switch their TV to Linux.

Kind of simpler in a way wouldn't it be? One provider vs 8 different streaming providers.

No one seems to have a problem dealing with multiple streaming providers. They’re essentially just different submenus on the TV app.

Compare that to setting up a home server with a ton of storage, setting up torrenting/newsgroups, software to check for new releases and automatically download them, probably a VPN too… it’s a whole different world.

When you tell people they can save a couple thousand dollars a year and never be tracked or watch an ad again on their tv if they learn how to setup a VPN and a seed box, a lot of people are quite happy to learn.

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