I’m thinking flip phone and taking an old Microsoft surface and putting Linux on it. I don’t see any other way to be open source where Google can’t fuck around with you.

I would do GrapheneOS, but I figure Google will find a way to block it or wreck it

Jellyfin is a different approach. My family loves to rewatch stuff and doesn’t necessarily need the newest content. So once something they like is on there, they are very content to have streaming like access to it whenever they like.

This does require setup, investing in storage and upkeep from you, so not for everyone. Well worth it if you have a family with watching habits like mine though.

I am very lucky to have a family that was patient while I figured all this out and tried different things over the years. Stremio sounds good on paper, but there was always some compromise with the quality or the ease. Especially if it was older content that is not necessarily mainstream.

Not saying this is the best answer for you, cause it could not to be. Just that I was looking for the same solution for my family and it took me to Jellyfin which they use all day every day now. They love it more than I could have imagined they would have and they never bother me to get a streaming service.

I tired all of this. All I’ll say is the solution ended up being Jellyfin. Expecting people to set up VPNs and understand links is not going to work with a family

Not to put down Stremio, but it does end up being a lot of work sometimes when you could just pick from one of the dozens of websites and stream it from your laptop.

I know this is not a very slick setup, but then you only have to worry about the VPN.

What’s funny is thinking about all the people that used to try to say that climate change won’t happen for hundreds of years.

Shows you how much those people knew.