Last good version of Windows, RIP 🙏

Yeah, Chromecasts are much better than Fire TV’s, due to the more control you have over them and how easy it is change the launcher vs. Amazon actively preventing it. Basically same price and budget as well. Plus Google running a newer version of Android in general vs. Amazon’s, etc. Chromecasts are probably lesser of the two evils imo.

Pretty much unfortunately. The good thing is its trivially easy to change launchers on the NVIDIA Shield or Google TV devices, plus you can even go a step forward and debloat them entirely with ADB. Amazon’s really the only manufacturer I’d say that forces home screen ads with no choice around it, since they actively prevent changing launchers and such. But Apple is probably the only one out of the box with no advertising.

If you have the money, I’d go for an NVIDIA Shield, or maybe an Apple TV. Well worth the money.

Otherwise, for budget, you could get a Chromecast, which gives you more control over it and has generally less garbage than the Fire TVs do for instance, since you can easily change its launcher and debloat with ADB.

You can easily change launchers on the Shield and remove all of Google’s nonsense through ADB as well though, unlike Amazon who locks down the OS very tight. Plus like another commenter said, you can just flat out install LineageOS and you’re good.

You don’t even need to do that, all you have to do is hold shift when you right click, and it circumvents any hijacking.

Depends, but yes in most cases. Also just adds attack surface and consumes extra resources, so its generally a good practice to keep extensions to a minimum and only use what you need.

My biggest issue with Jellyfin is the downloads. I hate not being able to downscale or compress files. Its really the main reason I still leave Plex up in conjunction to it. Though I hope to be able to get rid of Plex entirely in the future, Jellyfin just needs more time.

Yeah, Shizuku opens up a massive attack surface through ADB. ADB can do a lot to your device without you even realizing it in a lot of cases, and you’re basically giving ADB access to Shizuku itself and any apps that use it (which could be exploited) at all times, so its very risky. Its pretty dangerous and definitely best to avoid an app like this.

It does, it works better and covers more sites, but at the cost of security (increasing attack surface) and using more resources. Pros and cons to both.

Yes, this has been a major issue for NewPipe, see here.

Garuda appears to have some security issues unfortunately, see here.

To quote:

Garuda: They use Chaotic-AUR which automatically and blindly compiles packages from the AUR. There is no verification process to make sure that the AUR packages don’t suffer from supply chain attacks.

What shell would you recommend? 🤔

Not Chromium, Extremely customizable and configurable, and add-on support on mobile, to name a few reasons.

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Yep, they’re horrible. I always disable internet on them, uninstall any apps I can, and generally do what I can to avoid using the built-in smart TV, but I shouldn’t have to do this, its unfortunate and sucks to deal with. They just take advantage of consumers who don’t know better, wish the TV market wasn’t like this. :/

Proton VPN is probably one of the best VPNs out there. Has open source clients, is based in Switzerland so under their strong jurisdiction for privacy and data protection, doesn’t keep logs or sell data, has good speeds, includes useful features, etc. I’d definitely recommend it, as well as Proton’s other products.

Basically, LMG were producing way too much content way too fast without proper testing of products and were making tons of mistakes, and wouldn’t take the proper measures to take accountability for or fix the mistakes they were making. An egregious example was a mouse they reviewed where they literally didn’t take the tape off the bottom of it. They also got a one of a kind prototype cooler from a very small start-up company, improperly tested it (used the wrong GPU that it wasn’t even made for), blasted the product and called it horrible because of it, then refused to properly retest it because it’d at most cost $500 (despite them being a $100 million dollar company), and to put the cherry on top, auctioned off the product despite the company explicitly requesting it back and LMG even agreeing to send it back.

Now LMG is also being accused of sexual harassment and being an overall extremely toxic and horrible work place by a former employee.

I’d strongly recommend just watching the Gamers Nexus video and reading the thread from the former employee because this reply doesn’t near do this shitshow justice and I’m sure I’m missing out on a lot details.

Gonna quote myself from an earlier comment I made:

On Windows, just use the built-in Windows Defender. On Linux, I recommend ClamAV + ClamTK. On Android, Hypatia.

If you think you have malware, this is a pretty good guide to remove it.

I’d also strongly recommend using and configuring a content blocker like uBlock Origin in your browser, as well as using a DNS level blocker like NextDNS.

If you have a multilayered setup like this, then I think you’re pretty good and it’ll be not impossible, but much harder to get malware or be infected. Just use common sense as always.

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