Late to the conversation but maybe consider https://invidious.io/ or https://docs.piped.video/ - also for an easy to use desktop client there is https://freetubeapp.io/ which utilizes invidious/piped API’s.

Personally I host invidious on a separate machine and route that machine to a VPN my other devices do not use.

I use Debian btw

Absolutely nothing wrong with Debian, so long as you’re comfortable configuring most things through the shell you’ll be fine.

windows is more popular for having a UI

Linux had a UI way before windows ever did, it’s called the Shell.

ditch the homepod and don’t replace it with any other spyware

Family has gotten use to the HomePod being around, makes simple things like settings timers for cooking or other related task a bit easier.

And yeah, I’m aware it’s spyware. I wanted a “smart-home” and essentially landed on Apple products.

Yeah I was looking into Linux based mobile OS’s and I’ve come to the consensus that hardware selection is very limited.

I was very interested in GrapheneOS but unfortunately it’s for Pixel phones only.

I was so hyped when the EU pressured Apple into allowing external software on Apple devices.

Apple killed that hype making the change EU only, problem is I’m encapsulated in the walled garden with an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Air Tags, HomePods.

Thinking of getting a second phone Android based to partially-escape the garden but if I ditch my iPhone all hell will break loose network wise.

Forks of Firefox (like the Tor browser) are still Firefox, no matter how neutered it is.

You can use Bash if you want, but it’s not a necessity

I would argue and say at minimum you should be comfortable with Bash and the file system , otherwise if you spend a year running Linux and encounter some obscure error you’ll be totally clueless troubleshooting wise and might end up breaking something else.

Why not just host the stack at home and VPN in? Jellyfin is pretty snappy I don’t think you’ll struggle much network wise.

Sounds like self inflicted pain.

It most certainly is unfortunately. gLib2.0 is apart of the Debian main repository but for some damn reason I couldn’t pull it with apt.

Resulted in building it with meson but had so much trouble.

Yeah this post is bull shit!

I just spent the last 2-3 hours building SSHFS from source for Proxmox & Debian, it really sucked!

Ps: Fuck gLib2.0