Summary
The Year of the Linux Desktop hasn’t been on its way for quite as long as nuclear fusion plants, but somehow it seems to recede into the horizon at just about the same rate. Every year, it’s another year in the future. You know what isn’t a desktop? A television. [Haggis on Toast] makes a case that while there may be barriers to desktop adoption, there’s no reason not to use Linux for a set-top box, and shows one such build in a recent YouTube video. Of course everyone knows commercial set-top boxes and “smart” TVs alike run Android, which is built atop a Linux kernel. Those are getting steadily more frustrating to use as corporate enshittification continues, so why not DIY? [Haggis]’s build uses a miniPC in a custom 3D-printed case, running Nobara Linux with a Waydroid TV build to provide the Android set-top box experience, plus light/casual gaming via Steam. Control is via gamepads or a cheap USB remote, with the frontend provided by DeckyLoader. Getting it all set up might be a pain if you’re new to Linux. However, everything comes with easy installers, so it should be a breeze if you’re more than casually computer literate in any other operating system. The most intimidating part of this build is probably reflashing the Blu-Ray player to unlock the ability to play and rip 4K disk content. But if you’ve embraced the death of physical media, you can skip that part. Ironically, old Android TV boxes can also be repurposed into headless Linux machines. Thanks to [Keith Olson] for the tip! As streaming continues to enshittify, the HTPC (and its associated ability to play discs, archive files and leverage ad block) becomes relevant again. No proper DRM with L1 Widewine codec. That means: No Netflix, No Prime, No Hulu, No Paramount+, No Disney+, No HBOmax. All of those streaming services are garbage, not missing much. To be honest; yes, most content is garbage. The algorithms that suggest new stuff are even worse. But every once in a while you get to see something really good. Unfortunately the “constant rental” system (aka. subscription) is the only thing we have for content. I assume it won’t change the next 20-40 years until someone comes up with an even worse system… I neither miss linear TV, nor plastic disks nor magnetic tape. I enjoy watching streamed stuff. I rarely ever re-watch something. The only reason I sometimes tune back to linear TV is to get some livestream of News, every couple years, i.e. election results. That’s it. Not into watching Live Sports. Breaking Bad was pretty good and it used real-life chemistry for its plot. I also miss Dr House. I wonder how many will simply abandon watching television entirely when the UK switches off over the air TV entirely rather than go out and spend money on a new internet only television. Although I guess it does also beg the question of pirate television. Will the grip be tightened such that online television becomes a walled garden. Piracy much like drugs involves someone taking that first hit, and since there’s a lot of content out there, that’s a lot of hits. We have been doing this for several decades. We no longer bother with the DTV dongles though, the content turned do complete garbage and lies, so now we stream our own curated multimedia content, and add things such as a home wiki which turned out to be a more heavily utilised mode in the end.