SylviaJul 19, 2025

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: https://web.archive.org/web/20250718183453/https://docs.usetrmnl.com/go/diy/byos. This is not true. The only thing a local server can do is send images to the device and *proxy from their proprietary server*: https://web.archive.org/web/20250718062040/https://github.com/usetrmnl/byos_hanami/issues/178.

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

#UseTRMNL #DoNotUseTRMNL

Show threadSylviaJul 19, 2025

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.

Show threadSylvia

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.

Jul 19, 2025 at 9:06amWeb
Show threadSylviaJul 19, 2025

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.

Show threadSylviaJul 19, 2025

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: https://github.com/usetrmnl/byos_hanami/pull/179/files

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
Show threadSylviaAug 2, 2025

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.

Show threadSylviaAug 2, 2025

This took *two weeks*. It took *two weeks* to get to the point of shipping it back and getting an email about a refund (they claim it will take 10 more days to actually send the money), and then the refund isn't even complete.

How many laws does TRMNL want to break? Zero respect for their customers.

Show threadSylviaAug 8, 2025

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 https://github.com/BasementCat/fruitstand 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
Show threadSylviaSep 3, 2025

Update to my #TRMNL saga: I've successfully replaced it with #Fruitstand (https://github.com/BasementCat/fruitstand). See https://github.com/BasementCat/fruitstand/wiki/XIAO-7.5%22-ePaper-Panel 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

Show threadSylviaSep 3, 2025
For those stuck with the TRMNL hardware (too late to return, whatever), @aks is working on #Queerminal (https://codeberg.org/Queerminal). Probably worth checking out too :)
Queerminal

Codeberg is a non-profit, community-led organization that aims to help free and open source projects prosper by giving them a safe and friendly home.

Codeberg.org
Show threadIzzyAug 3, 2025

@SylvieLorxu 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).

Show threadshironekoAug 3, 2025
@IzzyOnDroid @SylvieLorxu similar thing for me as well, I saw techmoan's video about it, got interested and did some digging found that their self host thing is basically nonexistent and noped right out.
Show threadjakob42Aug 5, 2025
@IzzyOnDroid
Also there is this 🤬
https://social.lol/@adam/114959554043586459
@SylvieLorxu
Adam (@[email protected])

Attached: 3 images Just learned some really sad things about Ryan Kulp, the guy who makes the TRMNL. Would not have bought one if I had known beforehand.

social.lol
Show threadseeh #UnPlugTrump #SL5auraAug 11, 2025
@SylvieLorxu Thanks for the warnings