I am worried that soon we will need a “decent enough to buy” list because it will be difficult to find anything that is not on the “never buy again” list.

There are only a few companies that make the actual panels (regardless of how the finished TV or monitor was branded), and two of the biggest (LG and Samsung) are the worst offenders in terms of enshittification. It would not take much at all for the availability of new non-enshittified TVs and computer monitors to drop to literally zero.

first on the list:

linux.

Your buying Linux?

But honestly, I already switched on my PC and would like to switch to any open distro on my phone as well, but I’m worried that bank applications won’t work on the “unofficial” system.

you could just go browser mode.

What about contactless payment/NFC? I don’t think a browser allows that?

Dunno. That’s your risky decision to do that. Not mine.

Quite a few banking apps work on Graphene OS. My bank isn’t listed and it works on Graphene too (I really should contribute to that list). The big downside is probably having to buy a new phone for it but if you need to upgrade anyway it might be worth considering. The only app I’ve run into so far that didn’t just work was the Target app but it works with a bit of tinkering. I’ve only been using Graphene on my phone for two weeks now but all of the apps I used on my old phone are on here and working.

Seriously. I have an old LG plasma TV that I was planning to replace with an LG, but definitely not now.

I’m not sure there are any TV manufacturers that won’t try to fill your screen with ads and track what you’re watching, you just need to make sure your TV can’t access the internet.

Sceptre makes dumb panels still, limited range of options but better than being spied on if you just need a replacement screen.

That isnt enough since even dumb displays like LG monitors used Windows itself to install unwanted software on people’s PCs. Would have to actually disable that setting in Windows or use Linux.

I bought an LG TV last year. I has never been online and never will be. It gets served through a streaming box and that’s all the info it gets.

Same. I have no complaints about mine whatsoever.

The problem was you could do the right thing of keeping it offline, but that it used Windows to install unwanted software. Of course, solution is install Linux, but for the average user who decides to hook up their laptop and is using Windows they’d end up with unpleasant software installed.

And it affected LG monitors too, which means Windows PC users were affected.

Realize that we’re talking apples and oranges here (PC monitor vs TV). I was responding to someone about their invasive TV practices.

I’m lazy and curmudgeonly on my PC, so it’s running an IoT version of Windows 10 LTSC. No such shenanigans here. For now.

To be extra safe you should do

gpedit.msc -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Prevent automatic download of applications associated with metadata

This is the type of stuff that leads to auto installs of applications such as logitech, razer, and in this case LG companion app.

Can’t really rely on ltsc, since it was utilizing Windows driver install process so any device that tries to do what LG did is a risk. Its why people with LG monitors found that app installed despite not having smart TV functionality.