I have been rather unhappy with my smart TV’s functionality as I feel it isn’t smart for me but smart for the manufacturers. I just can’t use it how I want to. I would love to overwrite the existing OS from Android to Linux. I’ve recently converted from Windows and loving Mint.
I haven’t read too much regarding Linux smart tvs as my searches mostly come up with raspberry Pi and overwriting an Android box. I don’t want to connect anything and just want my tv to boot up in Linux when it’s turned on, and get some of my apps going. Is there a way to do this?
For reference I have a Sony Bravia with Android installed on it.
There are folks form KDE who are trying to implement the Plasma Bigscreen solution: https://plasma-bigscreen.org/. Seems promising to me :)
Though, I’d still recommend to use an external device to avoid breaking the TV OS up ;)
The fact that they mention Mycroft AI (which stopped being properly developed over 2 years ago) on their homepage is a little worrying 😬 They do mention the situation in their FAQs, though.
There is still active development: https://espi.dev/posts/2025/07/plasma-bigscreen/
Very nice, glad to see it! I suppose actually doing dev work is more important than updating the website 😅
Mycroft was picked up by OVOS and overhauled. Last i heard they were still actively developing it. Maybe some compatibility there?
They specifically say on their FAQs page that they’re not going to work with OVOS, sadly.
That does sound promising. I hope they get it up and running!