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unRaid is NOT switching to a subscription model
(unraid.net)
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this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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I'm fine with this. The old model was great and unsustainable. They are switching with the explicit goal of not taking VC money, which is a good thing in any context.
This is where I'm conflicted. Software development is hard and it's expensive. I completely understand that the old model was unsustainable.
HOWEVER - I've seen this a dozen times before. They make a move that's not great but it is understandable with the community. It's the next move that I worry about, when all of a sudden there is a subscription, or those old "lifetime" plans suddenly aren't lifetime. I remember PlayOn TV suddenly saying "Well now it's PlayOn Home. That's a new product, so you did get the lifetime of the old PlayOn TV! So we didn't really reneg on our deal!" Immediately in the garbage.
So, I'll be staying on for now.... with a big "we'll fuckin' see" in the next few years.
Me over here with a lifetime plex pass: "...uhhh, did you just feel that?"
Just learn a simple reverse proxy and swap out for jellyfin. Other than Plex not handling the user subscription/account side (privacy!) it's basically the same thing with some small edge cases like people with WebOS TVs and shit.
Unpopular but I've tried hard to switch to JF cold-turkey, twice, and both times it looks and acts like a hobby project. It's so far behind the curve it's rather upsetting, as that seems to be the 'best' we have for foss options.
Settings (all of them, global application or library) have way too many options with way too little explanation to what they do. With categories, either use them or don't, but like 6 categories for everything and you scroll through 25 settings isn't 'categorization' it's just a mess; can we get a nested menu please. No simple dvr solution - I shouldn't be required to pay a separate company a monthly fee for guide info. The UI screams 'my designer is also a developer' like it has a face only a mother can love. For https setup unless you know to just run a reverse proxy (I didn't the first time), the instructions might as well be a rubix cube compared to plex's execution. The metadata it pulls is alright I guess, but by that point I had already thrown in the towel. Oh yeah, hardware acceleration requiring manual setup is just no bueno; at this point it's like I'm taking a half-done Lego set and finishing it because my kid got bored and took a nap, and because I don't value my time enough I see it through to the end.
I want it to get better, genuinely, but damn does it have a way to go.
Hard agree. I love jellyfin and use it exclusively, but getting hardware acceleration working is a mess, the movie and show selection UI is really written by a developer and is very basic and 2010ish.
Android apps like Findroid really improve this, but the webUI and androidTV/chromecast UI really need an overhaul.
Thank you. When I mention how hard it is to get HW running, especially compared to Plex, people start acting like I'm mentally handicapped.
Hardware acceleration was as simple as choosing NVENC and saving for me. What are you guys doing wrong?
Intel Arc GPU. Had to enable a few modules, reboot, debug, follow the jellyfin docs for writing to some configs, reboot, didn't work. Follow the error messages which are pretty much useless, get pointed to stuff that isn't relevant. Finally someone on a forum had a good reply where they told me I have to download the entire linux proprietary firmware directory, extract the i915 folder from it, and plop it in my firmware folder and reboot. Then everything loaded and hwacceleration worked.
Yeah, easy like that...
Try Emby. Hardware acceleration works out of the box. It is paid though but I’m very happy with it for past few years.
I tried it many years ago, but it's been on my list to revisit for a while now yeah.
I don't watch TV, just shows and movies, so I didn't ever need the DVR functionality. So I get that. NVENC encoding was as simple as choosing it and hitting save; so I'm not sure why you were having troubles there unless you were trying to set up docker or some shit, but that's on you for using containerization, not on jellyfin.
And the UI is short, sweet, and to the point - exactly what I want to select a show and have it get out of my way. It looks almost exactly like AndroidTV did when it was introduced. Just a nice, clean way to select and start what you want.
I don't use the dvr functions myself, but family does, heavily, so it's an automatic show-stopper at the end of the day until that sees some love.
Docker, yeah. I have had minimal and solvable issues with other containers, and I believe docker is my only option (synology nas); but again I'd point at plex, as there's a container available that has 0 setup for hwa (beyond the container pull), and it "just works" so...
Eh, I mean it "works" but it's this uninspiring blue-on-black with white text that feels like it came straight from 2004. It's so... Toyota Corolla of UI "designs". I guess if the settings were decently laid out and easy to understand I wouldn't have to spend so much time staring at it and maybe it wouldn't bother me but again the setup/config is painful and options are obtuse at times, requiring time and research and tinkering... so here we are :/
Jellyfin still doesn't have a good solution for music. None of the players that support it are anywhere near as good as Plexamp.
Yeah, that's certainly the truth.
I'll keep using it until they no longer let me, I guess. Pretty sure OMV and TrueNAS have matured enough to fall to if unRAID decides to go full subscription, at least.
Hey, fellow PlayOn lifetime subscriber! I feel you and not everyone needs to feel the way I do about this. But, I’m fine with it. That may change, but it’s where I am now.
That move by them is what makes me so nervous about things like this. I will never not be angry, I left that company the second they announced our lifetime memberships were useless. "You get 3 whole months of the new subscription because we're nice like that." No way, I was out.
I hope unraid treats us better, but I'm nervous as hell.
For those (like me) who don’t know:
https://www.techhive.com/article/579775/playon-streaming-dvr-just-got-a-lot-pricier.html
My biggest problem is security updates.
The "x years of upgrades" model is okay when it's for an app, where you can just keep using it with the old feature set and no harm is done.
But Unraid isn't an app, it's a whole operating system.
With this new licensing model, over time we will see many people sticking with old versions because they dont want to pay to renew - and then what happens when critical security vulnerabilities are found?
The question was already asked on the Unraid forum thread, and the answer from them on whether they would provide security updates for non-latest versions was basically "we don't know" - due to how much effort they would need to spend to individually fix all those old versions, and the team size it would require.
It's going to be a nightmare.
Any user who cares about good security practice is effectively going to be forced to pay to renew, because the alternative will be to leave yourself potentially vulnerable.
At which point such an user might already be looking at TrueNAS/DIY setups TBH
There's all kinds of people being born every day, growing up and becoming self hosting unRAID users. Meanwhile current license holders are growing older and dying off.
How is continuing to charge for new people to get into unRAID unsustainable? If it's worked this long but isn't now then increase the prices, or watch your overhead.
I'm here until my pro license starts costing me again. If that happens, I'll likely jump just like I have done with other products I paid for that changed our original agreement.
But if you already have a license they aren't changing the agreement with you? I also don't think there was ever any agreement that everyone else would get the same agreement as you
I think they mean IF the license for old users changes, other companies have done that before. I'm on the same boat as him, if my UnRAID license suddenly means I need to start paying again I am switching.
Hope it stays that way.