The Samsung tries to “identify” what’s on an hdmi input before it will connect. It seems to call out to the internet to do that because it takes forever to fail and show you the display anyway when it’s not connected to the internet. Even when it is connected, it takes a stupidly long time to switch to a new input. I super hate it and will never buy another samsung tv.

I guess the lg needs to boot tizen before it works, because I see the logo briefly but then it goes directly to the last used input with no other bullshit, so it’s fine with me.

I love how literally nobody is answering your actual question.

I agree that this is problematic and we need TV reviews to include at least some of the information you cite.

If it helps, I have an LG smart TV. It complains if you don’t let it access the internet at setup, but if you connect it once and let it do its initial patching, you can decline all agreements and not get nagged until it tries to update again. To keep it from further updates, you can disconnect it from wifi and it doesn’t seem to try to reconnect. I can’t speak to public wifi because there aren’t any open access points near my TV.

In contrast, I have a samsung TV that loses its mind if it can’t connect to the internet and becomes basically useless for all the nagging.

You can debloat an NVIDIA shield android tv box, replace the default launcher, then install whatever else you want. It’s probably not perfect but it’s pretty darn good. That’s what I use and it can be updated without losing any of my customization.

It depends a LOT on where you are. In the USA, Canada, and (I think) Mexico, such a thing is not possible, at least in any way that the services you mentioned will care.

It might be possible in places where phone numbers don’t have a fixed length, like (again, I think) Germany.

The site is called medium because it’s rare to find anything well-done.

If they let you give them a phone number, I always use (in the USA) my area code plus 867-5309. So far it has always work. Younger checkout people don’t see anything unusual and older ones get a laugh out of it.

Yeah, this isn’t a presidential race, it’s a VP reality show.

Yes, there are a bunch of gaming-oriented ones. I’m using pop!_os (stupid name) and it took me nearly zero effort to start playing steam games. There’s also Drauger OS, Garuda, Lakka, and Bazzite, among others.

I think the current received wisdom on Linux gaming boils down mainly to three letters: AMD. As a company they’re “friendlier” to Linux for drivers and such.

That said, I’m running an 11th gen intel i7 and nvidia 3080 and not having any problems. I haven’t tried starfield yet but Baldur’s Gate 3 runs like a champ.