I bought the Emby lifetime license about 2 years ago when the plex remote streaming stuff first started getting talked about. It coincided with my server refresh so it ended up working out. I have been really happy with Emby so far.

One thing to note is that music streaming on remote devices is WAY better on plex, Emby behaves more like a mapped network drive running over the internet to a local music player that then forgets your position on pause or when you move away from the remote app/device whereas Plex is actually functional as a modern music player. I keep a local copy of my music library on my phone anyways and okay through Gonemad so it is a non-issue for me but Emby should work better than it does in that case.

Plex also allows/provides “live” tv (with ads) which can be nice if you are into that, and there is the “free” streaming library too which Emby doesn’t offer. I’ll keep plex around for those features but non-of my stuff is/will be hosted on Plex.

I actually ran into the same issue, never did figure it out. I started on Fedora Silverblue and rebased to Bazzite.

I’m using a 5v and its been a great phone so far. I will say, if you are in the US it is missing one of the important 5G bands and when it updates you have to go fiddle with the dual sim mode settings to get full internet speed again which is irritating.

It was the only phone I could find at the time that was smaller sized, waterproof, had a headphone jack and sd card slot, and a good camera though.

Oh look, another example of a product that worked fine without internet connectivity and was improved by adding extra bullshit you don’t actually need that then gets worse when those features can’t function properly because their server is offline.

We got a basic roomba 650 (the one that crashes into stuff and randomly cleans) like 10 years ago and it still works fine (well, as well as it ever worked which wasn’t great), you program the time and day of the week with physical buttons, and leave it alone.

It’s especially impressive that he mananged to do that with his hands tied behind his back. Some people are just determined I guess.

Don’t worry it’s engine nerd shit, no one there is having any sex.

On the fedira ws vm, I just layered it because its easy. I tried running openjdk in distrobox on bazzite but I didn’t have time to screw around with getting the program (Tunerstudio MS) that is already on my bazzite install to “find” the java in distrobox. I’m also REALLY new to distrobox so I was probably using it wrong. I’ll checkout toolbox later today.

Yeahh java is a pain in the ass to get setup on bazzite without breaking stuff when you have an os update. I spun a fedora vm up and just installed it there but I need to redo that because the program I need java for is on my main os and I can’t move the license without javing java installed on the main os…

Ah yes, more reasons to local host.

Setup was easy, it just works, its stable, and if you want the regular updates, just get the lifetime model on sale. I bought it becaue I didn’t want to spend time screwing with setup and just wanted to get my data moved snd running.

I have not kept up with their raw disk lineup to be honest, they may be garbo but I am not sure. I have been using toshiba and seagate drives for the last 8 years which have been great.

The WD devices also offer very limited long term support. The MyBook Live had a software exploit found a couple years after launch that allowed remote access to your files and enabled third parties to wipe your drives. Wd said “wow, that sucks, here is a $15 coupon for a new one. No, we aren’t gonna patch it. Buy a new one” I will never buy another wd device except for the raw discs.

I am a big fan of my xperia 5v. Yes, its not current but its still a great size, great battery, removable storage, ip rated, and has a headphone jack. You can probably get them cheaper now too. I think I paid $500 a year ago for mine when I was shopping it vs the 10vi.

Unrelated but did you know that Libraries oftentimes have cd’s, dvd’s, and even audiobooks available to borrow?

I really like Emby. The media recognition has been better/more accurate than plex in my experience.

Not op but Bazzite is excellent.

I am using syncthing to directionally sync my music from my server to my phone. I like having the local copy on both devices so I don’t worry about losing cell service/internet.

Once I got it up and running, it has been like you described, way better than windows.

No, the generic usb driver wouldn’t work for me. I only was able to get it to print a test page weirdly.

Brother. Weirdly, the scanner setup was completely painless and even easier than in wondows.