This will be short, but I need to vent.
Image from walmart.com
My TV doesnt work right now. Rather, my TV works fine, but I cant use it at all. Samsung forces all apps on their Smart TVs to check with their server before they can be used. Even apps like YouTube which normally don't rely on Samsung Services. Even sideloaded apps.
And now their servers are down globally. My TV is a giant brick. Luckily I didn't factory reset, or i wouldn't have been able to accept the terms and conditions that are mandatory before you can even start using the TV.
I've been decentralizing my life, moving media to Jellyfin and sideloading alternate apps on my phone and TV. But this is confirmation to me that even that is not enough. Time to start saving for a dumb TV and a small media center PC where I can have full control of my media experience. Time to move my phone to Graphine OS. Time to unplug from big, centralized services.
When my stuff breaks, it should be because I broke it. Someone else shouldn't be able to break my stuff. And I should be able to fix it.