Software engineer Carl Riis has announced his first hardware project, dubbed EarlGreyTV. It is a Smart TV project that differentiates itself from the usual ‘idiot box’ dominating your living room by leveraging the wonders of Linux and Firefox, plus an old laptop. Though Riis humbly admits that EarlGreyTV doesn’t compete with today’s state-of-the-art domestic solutions in every way, it has a few worthwhile advantages — customizability, control, and privacy.

Riis was inspired to create EarlGreyTV because he “didn’t really like existing Smart TV interfaces.” Perhaps more importantly, he added, “The short version of why I don’t like them is tracking, ads, and lack of control.” The concept behind EarlGreyTV is easy to understand, but the project wasn’t without its stumbling blocks. It took a modicum of finessing on both the hardware and software sides of the equation to get the project to a point where it works well for non-techy people.