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I would like to urge my followers to strongly avoid #TRMNL.

TRMNL calls itself "unbrickable" and Open Source, telling you you can host your own server and that basically everything is fully supported: web.archive.org/web/2025071818…. This is not true. The only thing a local server can do is send images to the device and *proxy from their proprietary server*: web.archive.org/web/2025071806….

To add insult to injury, TRMNL is trying to refuse me a refund, in gross violation of EU law.

#UseTRMNL #DoNotUseTRMNL

Email from TRMNL denying me a refund, stating their official policy is no refunds. This is in violation of EU law and also frankly very abuse to customers, especially given their product doesn't provide the promised services.

Add local plugins

I can't help but feel I must be missing something obvious. On https://docs.usetrmnl.com/go/diy/byos, the system talks about BOYS that allows it be be run with zero external dependencies. However, I...
TheLastProject (GitHub)
#trmnl #usetrmnl #donotusetrmnl
This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

I really hate fedi drama, but I know most of my followers care about *true* Open Source and want the privacy of running stuff locally. Which is exactly what TRMNL promises, but not what they deliver. I know most of my followers would be as devastated as me when the device arrives and... almost nothing works locally.

I do hope they turn this all around and actually start becoming the Open Source project they claim to be. But as it stands, they're doing some severe openwashing of their platform.

in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

This device is expensive for what you get. And that was OK to me! I thought I was supporting a big new Open Source ecosystem. It's fine to pay a premium for software. Software development costs money.

But I bought this to have all of the functionality *on my own server*, not to be locked in with a proprietary server or be forced to rewrite almost everything myself.

Sure, they *promise* they will, but I've seen that promise a million times. They also said you already could. They must prove it.

in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

I would've even been OK had they clearly marked this as not supported yet from the start. Then I had known "okay, they're working on it, but it's not there yet, I'll buy into the system when the basic functionality I need is implemented". I might've even bought it on the promise of future support if I was clearly told it wasn't supported yet.

But now I spent money on a product that doesn't do yet what I need it to (and they promised it to) do and I'm being refused a refund and that is not OK.

in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

The documentation has been somewhat updated, though they have decided to keep it marked as "supported", so it's still easy to misunderstand unless you read very thoroughly: github.com/usetrmnl/byos_hanam…

I'm also not sure if this makes properly obvious to everyone that it's not just your server accessing theirs: it also means that for example for calendar integration, you have to give their server complete access to your caldav URL and thus all your calendar data.

At least a bit more transparent :)


Added documentation recipe and plugin clarifications by bkuhlmann · Pull Request #179 · usetrmnl/byos_hanami

Overview There are minor updates and corrections. Details Addresses some of Issue #178. See commits for details.
GitHub
in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

My God I hate this company.

I had to yell at them several times to even get them to consider refunding me. And then I had to yell more because they wanted me to pay to ship it back.

And now I finally got it shipped back and I get the refund processed mail and they are not refunding the shipping nor taxes. That's over 40 Euros.

So now I have to yell at them *again*.

Never in my life have I seen such unprofessional and scummy behaviour from any company.

in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

IzzyOnDroid ✅

When you originally got yours, I thought I might want one myself. Hearing how their "support" works, how irresponsible they behave, how unaccountable they want to be for their own wrong labeling/promises/product descriptions: TRMNL is definitely on my "droplist" – the list of things I dropped from even considering.

They're not doing themselves a favor with such behavior. Not only have they lost a customer (you) – they also have lost potential future customers this way (e.g. me).

in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

They eventually refunded me the shipping costs too. I don't think I believe that the shipping refund was "still processing", when they initially sent me an invoice for the product refund with shipping explicitly excluded and the shipping refund happening withing hours of me complaining. Consistently this "timing".

Luckily even managed to get FedEx to approve refunding the taxes, neat.

Now to keep an eye on seeing how github.com/BasementCat/fruitst… evolves so I can have a real open source ecosystem :)


GitHub - BasementCat/fruitstand

Contribute to BasementCat/fruitstand development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub

IzzyOnDroid ✅ reshared this.

in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

Update to my #TRMNL saga: I've successfully replaced it with #Fruitstand (github.com/BasementCat/fruitst…). See github.com/BasementCat/fruitst… for the screen I used it with and some setup info.

Very happy with Fruitstand. It's clearly more beta, but I'll just keep contributing small patches here and there. It's actually #OpenSource, actually has local plugins and is privacy-respecting (all unlike TRMNL) and from what I can tell the dev is chill and not a bigot :)

#DoNotUseTRMNL

Fruitstand displaying a quote on the XIAO 7.5" ePaper Panel

GitHub - BasementCat/fruitstand

Contribute to BasementCat/fruitstand development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
#opensource #trmnl #donotusetrmnl #fruitstand
This entry was edited (12 hours ago)
in reply to Ziltoidium

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

@ziltoidium The XIAO panel allows you to manually build a dashboard with Home Assistant entities (wiki.seeedstudio.com/xiao_075i…) but that seemed like a lot of annoying manual labor. I much prefer some pre-designed dashboards to save time, which is why I went with Fruitstand :)

Works with ESPHome in Home Assistant | Seeed Studio Wiki

The XIAO ESP32C3-powered 7.5-inch E Ink® Display is a compact, energy-efficient solution for showcasing Home Assistant data.
wiki.seeedstudio.com
@Ziltoidium
in reply to Wren 🐁

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

@Wren Looks like a good start, I started watching the repo :) I'm interested to see where this goes because I am really into the idea of configuring some easy plugins that generate a nice little dashboard. I may end up contributing some plugins at some point, but I don't want to promise (I'm quite overwhelmed with my own Open Source projects).

Definitely would love to be kept up to date though!

@Wren 🐁
in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Kramer Canfield

I suggest trying the Bring Your Own Server software (e.g. the Laravel based one) you can use and never proxy images from the cloud or even log in to the TRMNL web app. I use the Laravel one and it runs completely on my home network. I don’t get the benefit of the native plugins though so I’m completely using my own plugins I have made or adapted. I’m also investigating alternative BYOD hardware to save cost. Looking forward to other ideas where possible. @Wren
@Wren 🐁
This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to Kramer Canfield

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

So, if they would've been honest in their marketing and documentation, I'd have accepted that. But they promised plugins were supported, yet don't let you run it offline. That type of openwashing is just not acceptable to me.

I'm okay with making sacrifices when self hosting, I'm not okay with paying a premium because I'm promised features X, Y and Z but I find out only X is available to me after paying. That's just not OK.

This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

@kramercanfield @Wren I'm glad custom plugins are possible (though woefully under documented), but hiding that all "official" plugins are proprietary felt like extremely sketchy openwashing to me. Together with them saying "Bring Your Own Server" supports plugins with no such note whatsoever completely broke my trust in them.

Just out of curiosity though, where do people host these custom plugins, how are you supposed to discover them and how are you supposed to install them? Docs were lacking.

@Kramer Canfield @Wren 🐁
in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Kramer Canfield

@Wren This repo has some native plugins (in Ruby) but if you scroll down a little there are links to tools and community plugins github.com/usetrmnl/plugins where you can find the markup. There are quite a few community ones. You have to open a Pull Request or have a Developer license to get added to the featured list and I haven’t tried that yet. I agree the docs could and should be clearer about what “support” means for various features on the BYOS options.

GitHub - usetrmnl/plugins: e-ink dashboard plugin logic

e-ink dashboard plugin logic. Contribute to usetrmnl/plugins development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
@Wren 🐁
in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Kramer Canfield

I’m not too familiar with open source licensing. It seems like the intent of the list here is sharing and re-use at a minimum. Here is a resource I found for myself choosealicense.com/ and what happens without a license choosealicense.com/no-permissi…. Is this a good resource?

According to this page, the GitHub Terms of Service allow others to fork a public repo by default and recommends asking the maintainer of a repo to add a license.

Choose an open source license

Non-judgmental guidance on choosing a license for your open source project
Choose a License
This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to Kramer Canfield

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

@kramercanfield @Wren It gets the basics right. Some criticize the GitHub page for making copyleft licenses sound "too negative", but that's all.

But yeah, open source has a pretty clear definition and just being able to fork it on GitHub is not enough: opensource.org/osd

The GitHub forking being allowed is because of GitHub's terms of service, so they are protected legally, it purposefully does not allow more than using basic GitHub features because it is just for their legal certainty.

The Open Source Definition

Introduction Open source doesn’t just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open source software must comply with the following criteria: 1. Free Redistribution The license shall…
Open Source Initiative
@Kramer Canfield @Wren 🐁
Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

@glitzersachen The problem is not so much about being able to mod it. The problem is that they marketed this as Open Source and stated on their official "BYOS" (Bring Your Own Server) documentations that plugins are "fully supported". To then only find out you can't self-host any of the plugins they market.

Sure, I could write my own plugins and everything, but at that point, why even buy an expensive device that promises to be an open source ecosystem?

@Glitzersachen
in reply to Sylvia

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

@glitzersachen Thanks anyway for chiming in, I understand the side you're coming from, but yeah, the issue is more "they promised me an open source ecosystem and gave me a small open source API and told me to do it all myself".

If I knew also what kind of person their CEO was I would've never even attempted to buy it. At least now there is one person who has documented that their documentation is a lie, so many people seem to have taken them for their word it's "self-hostable".

@Glitzersachen
Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source

Sylvia

@glitzersachen Basically:

Their server has an API. The "API unlock" allows you to directly talk to that API (which is necessary if you "self host" and want to proxy stuff through their server) or submit your own plugins to their directory.

BYOD means... connecting your hardware to their server.

BYOS means... well, you would think it means "self-hosting everything". It actually means "self-hosting very limited software which can send images to the device or proxy through their server".

@Glitzersachen
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