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.

I prefer Calyx on my phone, for the sake of the extra privacy of Micro-G vs sandboxed Google Play Services.

You should give DivestOS a try tbh if you prefer microG to Sandboxed Play Services, since Divest’s implementation of microG is sandboxed/unprivileged unlike Calyx’s, which is a massive privacy and security benefit. Divest in general is a lot more private and secure then stock or Calyx, since it includes a lot of hardening and patches from Graphene, so I’d recommend it as the second best option to Graphene in general, and definitely by far the best option for using microG. Divest also covers most of the same phones Calyx and Graphene do, unfortunately no Pixel Tablet support though.

(I’m not trying to shill Divest or anything btw lol, I just think its a great underrated project that deserves a lot more recognition and support than it has, and seems to fit your use case)

For microG (what I would recommend, since its much more private than regular GAPPS/full Play Services), you can just flash a LineageOS for microG build for your device instead of the official LineageOS. You can get them here. It covers the same devices that Lineage itself does. Same installation process, just using their files instead of Lineage’s.

DivestOS added optional support for unprivileged microG fairly recently, so its definitely usable.

They both should work, you won’t get notifications for Teams though unless you flash microG or GAPPS.

Not all of it is carrier related. I had an S21 unlocked (from US) and it still included Facebook and their garbage services, Netflix, OneDrive, etc. Also all of Samsung’s first party bloatware and nonsense is prevalent regardless. Not to mention Samsung selling data and their tracking, crippling your phone if you root it or install a custom OS (and in the US outright preventing it entirely), etc. Can’t recommend them or their phones at all, but its unfortunate because they have great hardware, just terrible software.

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.

I like Clock You.

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.

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

Just looking at this gives me anxiety 😟

Is the culprit “firebaseinstallations.googleapis.com”?

Sensors and Network access aren’t on Stock Android unfortunately (though they should be!), only on other OSes like GrapheneOS and DivestOS atm. Everything else besides those 2 however is present on Stock.