Blazkowicz [none/use name]

They started out as a great option for kids from poor backgrounds to learn to code. Schools usually have really locked down PCs and a raspberry pi let them sidestep a lot of that.

I managed to (just about) run a home media server off one for a few years until I could afford a better setup. Now I have it running as a replacement for my ‘smart’ TV’s spyware riddled OS which even has HDMI passthrough for the remote control input.

They are useful, versatile, and still fairly cheap considering the cost of components now.

Have you tried ‘microg 4 lineageos’? I’ve been using most of my bank apps without any issue through it even with strong integrity failing. Not ideal but it works best for me while minimising google’s existence in my life better than stock android. It even has OTA updates much longer term than my oem. A major caveat for almost all phones is the firmware can basically never be free, and sim networks are designed for spying anyway.

None of them are a grift. They get used by financial traders for performing grifts, but the grift was and always has been stock market manipulation. AI is incredibly useful and many competent engineers now use it effectively. I expect the bubble of anthropic/openai will pop once local or on-prem models get better.

Jellyfin has largely the same, although I’ve never used Plex so maybe I’m wrong on that. It’s a pain for the host to setup and get going with jellyfin for multiple users with auth (speaking from experience), but it’s a do once have forever setup.

If you don’t own something, eventually Capitalism will weaponise it against your soul. FOSS is owned in common, and self hosting is your own. Never understood why people liked plex.