the_abecedarian

Linux is super configurable! You’ll just need to try out a bunch of different window managers, taskbars, etc to see which one you like best, but maybe look for some videos to preview a couple first.

The unixporn Lemmy community also has examples

Don’t pick a whole distro based on the UI. The distro choice is about stability vs bleeding edge packages, package manager, minimal/maximal installs, security hardening vs convenience, use or avoidance of particular systems (e.g. systemd), and things like that.

The UI will come from your choice of desktop environment, window manager, compositor, etc. Those can be installed on most distros. You can also look at dotfiles for more theming. Ofc it’s silly to install a different UI on a particular flavor/version/spin of a distro built for a given desktop environment (like Kubuntu), though it’s still possible.

I’m enjoying Niri rn. It’s a scrolling & tiling window manager. I have it running on opensuse.

Check for new terms about ai use of your data

If you buy “digital signage” or “commercial display” monitors, they won’t have built-in ad-tracking; some models have a recent version of Android built-in that makes it easy to load Jellyfin, Kodi, and other such apps; and they’ll be built to commercial specifications, meaning they’ll last longer. They can also have better screencasting features.

On the downside: they are more expensive, you’ll need to check their specs for things like bluetooth, wifi, HDMI, and other things you need; the built-in speakers are not good. The TV of course doesn’t stop any particular app from serving you ads on its own, unless you load in another app to block them.

I have a setup like this, connected to a seedbox with transcoding, and it works great.

Use a seedbox and the arrr suite instead of streaming services

I’ve been using it and it’s been a good experience. It runs smooth, has less flashy stuff (at least by default), and an easy to use config file.