this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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  • Home Assistant is now part of the Open Home Foundation, a non-profit aiming to fight against surveillance capitalism and offer privacy, choice, and sustainability.
  • The foundation will own and govern all Home Assistant entities, including the cloud, and has plans for new hardware and AI integration.
  • Home Assistant aims to become a mainstream smart home option with a focus on privacy and user control, while also expanding partnerships and certifications.
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[–] [email protected] 40 points 7 months ago (2 children)

For technical people... Yes.

For people who aren't that technical? No.

Don't get me wrong, the Home Assistant Green and SkyConnect dongle is great and massively makes maintenance for the regular joe easier (no pis or other hardware that loads from the SD/hardware considerations).

But some stuff in UX would have to improve, which it already is doing ofcourse.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You would need to make touching a config file non existent. They've improved this over time, but not quite there I imagine.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's especially true when it comes to things like HACS. I love HA but I've also told everyone I know that, if I die, rip all that shit out and replace all the "smart" stuff with regular stuff.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Or ….. I choose stuff that work’s normally, with “smart” being an addition.

  • Smart thermostat works exactly like a dumb one, if you’re not online and there’s nothing programmed.
  • Smart switches work exactly as a dumb one, if there’s no automation saying otherwise.
  • Alexa works exactly like Alexa, if there’s no integration with HA.
  • Flood sensors do beep, even if nothing is integrated to notify your phone
[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You're not wrong and, to be fair, I'm mostly exaggerating when I say to rip out all the smart stuff.

Thermostat would stay, Alexa is being phased out but google home would stay, flood sensors I have at this time do not beep because of the stress is causes the pets just during normal testing, but those could be easily replaced.

However, I also have a ton of lighting, zigbee sensors, zigbee smart plugs, camera motion automations, alarm system automations, garage door automations, and other routines that can't just be taken over by someone that has no desire to mess with HA. It's not always about the functionality of the device itself, but what HA does to enhance it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

While I know I was claiming the opposite, it is actually an anxiety by of mine.

In my first townhouse I had wired in speakers, and network/cable/phone everywhere. There was a really nice structured wiring box tying it all together. It was beautiful.

When I sold, the realtor made me leave my speakers, my router, my switches, because she claimed it was part of the house and no one could use the wiring without it. What a load of BS that was, but when a home sale is on the line, no point in swearing the small stuff. After I factory reset things, what good does it do them over buying their own, wither own account, and a user manual?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Mine as well, i have a closet with a half rack with all my networking gear, NAS, UPS, proxmox server, etc. If I'm gone, it's time for whoever lives here to just get a combined router/modem from the ISP and call it a day.

"can't use the wiring" So in the old days they made people leave all their phones connected when they moved right? /s

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

As a technical person working in tech, I’ve heard of home assistant but only ever spoken to one or maybe two people that have actually tried it. It doesn’t seem that mainstream. Meanwhile, every smartphone has a proprietary assistant built in.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

The assistant in your phone is not the same as home assistant.

Home assistant is mostly used to group all your smart home stuff and create automations.

Being a technical person myself, most people I know want to try it but don't have the use for it due to living in appartments.