Mastodawn

Sylvia Jul 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

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Atemu Mar 25

@SylvieLorxu

I'm not sure I'm following. According to them, there is an option to proxy their hosted offerings in order to serve it *in addition* to your own content. That sounds quite reasonable to me?

Are you implying that there is no option to render arbitrary web content locally and serve it to the device as the dev claims to be doing with their own device at home?

The lacking return policy is not great but you are importing this from the U.S.; EU commerce law simply does not apply.

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Sylvia Mar 25

@Atemu Did you read the other messages where I went into more details on how this is a bait and switch?

Tl;dr: They promise a full open source ecosystem, but all the plugins are proprietary and locked to their cloud. You can do *nothing* without their server except render some plain text.

And no, if you sell your products to an EU citizen, you have to follow EU law.

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Atemu

@SylvieLorxu

If I'm getting this right, your issue with them is that they do not open source all of the integrations they offer as a service?

Because both your initial post and the issue make it sound like you can't even make the server render e.g. your own html and send that to the device.

If the screen can continue to display locally-controlled content even in the event the company went its-up (which is my current understanding; please correct me if I'm wrong), I do not see the issue.