I was just forwarded this someone in my household who watches our server. That's it folks. I've been a hold out for a long time, but this is honestly it.
They want me to pay to stream content that I bought from my hardware transcoded also on my hardware.
I'll say it. As of today, I say Plex is dead. Luckily I've been setting up Jellyfin, I guess it's time to make it production ready.
Edit I have a Plex Pass. More comments saying "Just buy a plex pass" are seriously not getting it. I have a Plex Pass and my users are still getting this.
Lmao.
Yeah the difference is voluntary. If i can choose to donate $50 to help development on an open source project, or be forced to pay $150 to support some fucking corporate enshittification, youre damn sure id rather donate. But the point is no one has to if they don't want to or can't afford it.
I paid $150 like 8 years ago for rock solid media server software with continual updates and client applications continuously updated for virtually every platform available.
You have to be insanely entitled and whiny to think that's corporate enshittification or a bad value. Get some perspective.
Yeah my perspective is that an open source app that never charges you is better than one than literally fits the definitikn of enshittification by charging more money while decreasing functionality.
First of all, no, that is not the literal definition of enshittification. If you want to be literal about it, enshittification specifically refers to the nature of two sided platforms and how they tend towards shit, not that every pricing change from every company / product in general is always shitty.
Second of all, this is the first change to their pricing structure in a decade of continuous development. Like kindly fuck off and wait for a second data point before screaming that they're greedy devils trying to fuck you.
Thirdly, this is an incredibly minor change to their pricing structure, and one that makes sense. Previously you had to pay for the Android and iOS client applications no matter what, even if you were paying for a Plex pass. Now the Android and iOS apps no longer have an unlocking fee so users pay nothing, just the server owner, and again, it's all entirely free for over a decade of great server software, if you just pay $150 once. It's an insanely reasonable deal.
Fourthly, if you want to use Jellyfin remotely, guess what you need to do? Set up wireguard or a private vpn tunnel to make it appear like your client devices are on the same local network as your server. Now, guess how you can get around Plex charging for remote streaming....