@Narbray The whole 計画 (note: keikaku means plan) of "smart" TV's is that eventually buying a TV that doesn't run proprietary software with digital handcuffs won't be possible.
Sure you can still get big monitors for a much larger cost now, but those will eventually all become ultra-proprietary as well.
@Suiseiseki yes even smart monitors have appeared, I don't know who asked for them. for better or worse everything will become 'smart' in the future losing more and more privacy surrounded by proprietary software
@poopernova Removing the wireless card will stop it from sending off what the spying features have collected, but that won't make the software running on the TV not proprietary.
In many such cases the case is very difficult to remove without breaking a bunch of glue and the wireless card is soldered to the board - sure you can desolder it, but that's kind of risky and there's a chance that the TV software will refuse to work as it can't load proprietary software onto the Wi-Fi card etc.
@Narbray >no alternative open operating system I strongly recommend against thinking in alternatives, as that implies that the original is acceptable or in "open", as open and closed are merely two states.
Most smart TV's run BusyBox/Linux, which is ideally meant to be licensed under the GPLv2 and therefore free software, but most of those TV companies infringe copyright law by not providing the complete corresponding source code under the terms of the GPLv2 and the installation information.
As per the GPLv2 (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html): "3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or, b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or, c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.) The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable."
Some companies provide the source code, but refuse to tell you how to install it and/or use digital handcuffs in the TV to make it refuse to run modified versions of the software and/or make unrelated software in the TV refuse to run.
Sadly there's a lack of enforcement of the GPLv2 due to the expense of suing companies, but there's one group that enforces the GPLv2 and GPLv3 a lot and wins every time - the Software Freedom Conservancy.
Enforcement of the installation information requirement of the GPLv2 is difficult as you need to know what an executable is to understand such sentence.
The GPLv3 was therefore written to solve many found problems in the GPLv2 and it also make it crystal clear as to what installation information is required - but of course all the proprietary software developers love to defend digital handcuffs.
@LoliHat@poopernova@Narbray@Suiseiseki and they will have built-in cellular modem. and then in 10 years people will build a shitty 2008 standards FOSS version and only be better from there. so is life :awoo_bell: