Open Source Digital Signage: What the License Doesn't Tell You

"Open Source" sounds like control. In practice it often means: free to get in, stuck later. The license tells you nothing about whether you can actually run the system yourself, whether your screens keep running when the server goes down, or whether your content is stored in open formats or locked into a proprietary schema. That's decided by the architecture. What Actually Matters Four things separate genuinely independent systems from vendor-dependent ones: Self-hosting: Does it run on your own infrastructure, or does it require external servers you don't control? Player/CMS separation: If the server goes down, do your screens go dark? A decoupled architecture means players continue their last schedule independently. Open standards: Proprietary playlist formats lock your content to one vendor. SMIL is the open W3C alternative. Deployment model: Docker or bare-metal vs. vendor-specific runtimes. A system that ticks all four stays portable long-term. One that doesn't will eventually hol