# LG webOS 8 Hacker News commenters recommended LG webOS and 15 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 10 years (5 owners). **Verdict:** People say it works well enough, has few ads, and can be rooted, though critics call it slow, privacy-invasive and poorly maintained. ## Why people recommend it - Good enough for everyday use (2 comments): "The built-in OS on my LG is honestly good enough for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46844594)) "Even webOS was praised amongst users." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49565708)) - Open to rooting and custom control (2 comments): "TVs running Roku or WebOS do have nice control APIs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49105049)) "I have a rooted LG WebOS TV. It's really nice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47323431)) ## What people warn about - Collects data and spies on viewers (4 comments): "I extracted the firmware and filesystem of a webOS 3.5 and webOS 24 TV previously so I could remove the spying bits" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49614287)) "LG still covertly takes screenshots of everything you display on your screen" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49679412)) "They sold us a spying device masqueraded as a smart TV." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49596278)) - Generally poor software quality (4 comments): "turned something great into one of the worst smart TV experiences on the market" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46288349)) "their system is crap comparable to Samsung's Tizen" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48355307)) "shitty WebOS is enough to put me off that" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50224550)) - Slow after updates (2 comments): "The first update slowed it down - not that it was particularly fast to begin with - and every subsequent update made it even slower." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49674435)) "Regular 1.5GB updates are nuts, especially when WebOS is so terrible." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48966005)) - Confusing menus and settings (2 comments): "The setting to launch an LG WebOS TV into its last input on power-on is buried under 'advanced settings' several menus deep." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46220941)) "For some reason they weren't content to let the TV menu/remote work with up/down/left/right buttons." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46751082)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Projectivy Launcher](https://hackerapproved.com/p/projectivy-launcher.md): 29 recommend - [Google TV](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-tv.md): 13 recommend - [CoreELEC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/coreelec.md): 5 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.lg.com/us/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "LG webOS", https://hackerapproved.com/p/lg-webos-tv/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).