I am using syncthing to directionally sync my music from my server to my phone. I like having the local copy on both devices so I don’t worry about losing cell service/internet.

Once I got it up and running, it has been like you described, way better than windows.

No, the generic usb driver wouldn’t work for me. I only was able to get it to print a test page weirdly.

Brother. Weirdly, the scanner setup was completely painless and even easier than in wondows.

As a recent linux convert I found printer drivers and setups to be a pain and getting java runtime working was a process but everything else was about a days worth and it just works. Hell, even hitting the windows key on the keyboard and typing the ms name for stuff pops up the relevant linux program. If you didn’t know you were looking at something different, it wouldn’t be obvious for the most part.

Yeah the docs are not good, I have been lucky to have a friend with lots of experience in their ecosystem who has been schooling me up on it. Once I got the basic configuration setup its been fine.

I may regret saying that in a bit when I go to add my other components, like my adguard/pi-hole, vpns, ip cameras, and other networked devices but the basic test setup I have now seems to be stable enough to deploy.

I have not seen the connection loss issues but I will keep an eye out for it.

The op mentioned wanting open source. Just providing information and it got me curious.

They are not open source but I just started dipping my toes into the Mikrotik ecosystem and the hardware has been pretty nice from what I have seen. I am not a network guy, just a homegamer coming from normal asus routers though. They have a couple of options for adding cell service via sim cards but I have not looked too far into it.

Edit: it looks like there is an openwrt release for the rb5009ug I am using. I may need to check that out.

Emby is a good option if you don’t want to hop to jellyfin. I have been pleased with it so far. I found the media tag/idenifier to work better/quicker than plex’s.