tjhart85

Yeah, and I can't speak for everyone here, but I didn't even bother trying it even though I was intrigued. It seemed like the kind of thing that could be completely game-changing and I wasn't willing to get hooked on another Googler's pet project that'd just get the axe in a few years. It's a self fulfilling prophecy at this point, nothing new is likely to get any traction because no one wants to run the risk and then Google cancels it. If they were willing to put in writing that they'll support something for x number of years (that's end user facing, not just whatever contracts they make with devs or whatever), it'd probably go a long way, but they're not willing to support an expensive flop if the product is what actually sucks, so, they're not likely to do that.

Hell, even anything older still runs the risk at any time :-\

Ah, my apologies for the assumption, it's been almost a year but I'm still too used to Reddit apparently!

Yes, the default launcher had ads, the SHIELD itself didn't, but I also didn't like any of the 3rd party launchers I used but I don't remember specifically why. Then, the SHIELD stopped booting so I didn't want to buy another one and went with the ATV instead.

As I mentioned, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to someone who knows they'd regret not having the cast functionality, but, if you just want a device that works very well and doesn't ever have so much as a hiccup during navigation, it's been great!

I would still recommend the SHIELD for someone that wants cast or who wouldn't have a problem with (mostly) relevant ads being shown on the device (stock).

Yeah I used to have a PC and a Harmony remote that would send macros to a custom script and Kodi would do different things or it could switch to Netflix and ... Like, we just want to watch a movie or TV show not have to perform tech support whenever Netflix changed their webpage!

My SHIELD would just randomly restart itself until eventually it stopped coming back online.

I definitely got my monies worth out of it, but didn't like that a device with no ads all of a sudden became a device with ads (and this is a Google thing not an Nvidia one, but still)

You specifically said you use a 3rd party launcher. You know why you specifically mentioned that.

We're a non-iPhone household and went with the AppleTV when my Nvidia SHIELD died.

Ads were getting put on the SHIELD and I definitely didn't want to buy another one because of that and it has been a while since its had a refresh, so went with an AppleTV instead.

The device itself is fantastic, the UI is so smooth and so much nicer. OTOH, I miss being able to cast to the TV more than I expected. It works decently with the Macbooks though (we're a weird household ... like Macs, hate iPhones).

So ... if ya'll have iPhones or don't care about casting, I'd definitely recommend an AppleTV with Plex (the Dropout, Youtube, Disney+ apps are all good too).

ETA: Apple is also making some pretty awesome TV content as well and IIRC you'll get a couple months free with the purchase ... verify that yourself though in case they've removed it, but Foundation, Severance & See are fantastic shows if you're looking for something to watch.

From what I understand due to the way that Lemmy handles federation, it doesn't (currently?) have a way to handle an instance changing its domain name and still being able to communicate or even an individual user changing their instance and retaining their comments/votes/etc... (this might be more ActivityPub limited since the way Mastodon does it still seems pretty hacky and just a work around for underlying issues).

From a website perspective, yeah, just change some settings and you're good to go and accessible on the web, but that doesn't mean that anything regarding Lemmy is going to actually work.

I mean, kind of ... I have file servers, download servers, documentation servers, syncthing servers, backup servers, vaultwarden servers, etc... that are all linux VMs/containers and my main machine is a Macbook, but I do still have a Windows machine in the living room for gaming (yeah, Steam has pushed us far in this regard, but, when I get time to play a game, I just want to play it, I want the best chance it's going to work the first time and that's still, sadly, Windows). I have another windows machine running Blue Iris as my NVR because I didn't have a good experience with Frigate, Shinobi or a few others. I've got a few other systems floating around that do various things and some of them are linux based and some are windows based depending on what's easier/possible.

I love when that happens though!

It's similar to Cara Gee being so awesome to work with that she wound up taking the place of like 5 book characters. Ty and Wes both rave about her every chance they get in the podcast. IIRC they've talked about Ashfords actor being fantastic to work with too.

I mean, their use of 'THEN' rather than 'THAN' indicates that they'll soon adopt the socialist agenda, so there's still hope!