Is This the Year of The Linux… Television?

The Year of the Linux Desktop hasn’t been on its way for quite as long as nuclear fusion plants, but somehow it seems to recede into the horizon at just about the same rate. Every year, it’s another year in the future. You know what isn’t a desktop? A television. [Haggis on Toast] makes a case that while there may be barriers to desktop adoption, there’s no reason not to use Linux for a set-top box, and shows one such build in a recent YouTube video.

Of course everyone knows commercial set-top boxes and “smart” TVs alike run Android, which is built atop a Linux kernel. Those are getting steadily more frustrating to use as corporate enshittification continues, so why not DIY? [Haggis]’s build uses a miniPC in a custom 3D-printed case, running Nobara Linux with a Waydroid TV build to provide the Android set-top box experience, plus light/casual gaming via Steam.

Control is via gamepads or a cheap USB remote, with the frontend provided by DeckyLoader. Getting it all set up might be a pain if you’re new to Linux. However, everything comes with easy installers, so it should be a breeze if you’re more than casually computer literate in any other operating system. The most intimidating part of this build is probably reflashing the Blu-Ray player to unlock the ability to play and rip 4K disk content. But if you’ve embraced the death of physical media, you can skip that part.

Ironically, old Android TV boxes can also be repurposed into headless Linux machines.

Thanks to [Keith Olson] for the tip!