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as a home assistant user (home assistant core user) I am fairly tired of baby sitting it. Is openHab any better? The comments indicate it is a much older java

as a home assistant user (home assistant core user) I am fairly tired of baby sitting it. Is openHab any better? The comments indicate it is a much older java project, so perhaps it doesn't do anything better? The rate at which home assistant moves is probably its biggest strength and also its biggest weakness. Every time I upgrade something breaks and requires debugging. It's one of those things I wish I could setup and never touch again, but alas, I like to tinker...

justapassenger 5y ago
I've used home assistant for 4 years. After being fed up with constant breakages, I moved to Hubitat. It's a closed source separate appliance, but it's very capable, fully local and reliable (used it for 1.5 year now, with 0 issues). And not breaking things is taken much more seriously there. But dashboard sucks beyond imagination. If you need any fancy UI - stay away. If you need pure automation - take a serious look at it.
eternityforest 5y ago
You could always come join me on the KaithemAutomation project :P I ran almost 24/7 for about 4 or 5 years in a commercial setting, and it's tinkering-friendly because the core feature is "modules" that are bundles of Python and HTML that you edit via a web IDE without needing to restart. Plus, the device integrations abstraction is super easy and it's easy to build your own host that can use any device drivers you make. We've also got modules for live sound mixing with JACK and CCTV cameras with ~1s latency to the UI.
madaxe_again 5y ago
I’ve been using openhab for a few years now. Relentlessly reliable on the rpi, easy to customise, and it’s doing everything from balancing our power grid to managing water distribution to turning the lights down when I put a movie on. I like it. Never tried honeassistant though, so can’t compare.
ur-whale 5y ago
> Is openHab any better? I would say: firm no. See my other comment in the thread as to why.
- tony124 5y ago
  I have no practical experience with OH, so cannot comment on the 1st point. However if I only want to set and forget, then the rest is pretty much irrelevant. I'd say HA is great for people who like to tinker and have a lot of time (and don't mind fixing broken things constantly).
  - gnyman 5y ago
    Has HA broken without being touched for you? In my experience, as long as I don't touch it, it keeps on chugging along (with a notable exception for the recent winter-time bug). Doing upgrades means things might break, but that is kind of understandable for such a extremely active project. ~10 new issues, ~25 merged PR's, ~4 new PR's per day for the last month. I wish there was some way to better decouple the new things from the core though, hopefully they will figure something out so we can have stability without opting out of new features completely.
    - sniglom 5y ago
      For me it has. Killed it's own configuration on several occasions or just hung.
tony124 5y ago
my experience with HA is very much the same, and I am also tired of baby-sitting HA. Last time it broke I didn't have time to fix and think maybe investment into OH will not be wasted. I'd like to set and forget, not to spend my time to assist something that is supposed to make my life easier.
Milner08 5y ago
I am interested in what baby sitting you have to do with HA? I would say my home assistant (on a Pi4) is stable maybe 95% of the time, with most issues solved with a reboot. The biggest of those rare issues is that my zigbee dongle occasionally just refuses to work which isn't really an issue with HA its self. I tried OpenHab in the past and was not a fan, but thats not to say its any worse.

justapassenger 5y ago

I've used home assistant for 4 years. After being fed up with constant breakages, I moved to Hubitat. It's a closed source separate appliance, but it's very capable, fully local and reliable (used it for 1.5 year now, with 0 issues). And not breaking things is taken much more seriously there. But dashboard sucks beyond imagination. If you need any fancy UI - stay away. If you need pure automation - take a serious look at it.

eternityforest 5y ago

You could always come join me on the KaithemAutomation project :P I ran almost 24/7 for about 4 or 5 years in a commercial setting, and it's tinkering-friendly because the core feature is "modules" that are bundles of Python and HTML that you edit via a web IDE without needing to restart. Plus, the device integrations abstraction is super easy and it's easy to build your own host that can use any device drivers you make. We've also got modules for live sound mixing with JACK and CCTV cameras with ~1s latency to the UI.

madaxe_again 5y ago

I’ve been using openhab for a few years now. Relentlessly reliable on the rpi, easy to customise, and it’s doing everything from balancing our power grid to managing water distribution to turning the lights down when I put a movie on. I like it. Never tried honeassistant though, so can’t compare.

ur-whale 5y ago

> Is openHab any better? I would say: firm no. See my other comment in the thread as to why.

tony124 5y ago
I have no practical experience with OH, so cannot comment on the 1st point. However if I only want to set and forget, then the rest is pretty much irrelevant. I'd say HA is great for people who like to tinker and have a lot of time (and don't mind fixing broken things constantly).
- gnyman 5y ago
  Has HA broken without being touched for you? In my experience, as long as I don't touch it, it keeps on chugging along (with a notable exception for the recent winter-time bug). Doing upgrades means things might break, but that is kind of understandable for such a extremely active project. ~10 new issues, ~25 merged PR's, ~4 new PR's per day for the last month. I wish there was some way to better decouple the new things from the core though, hopefully they will figure something out so we can have stability without opting out of new features completely.
  - sniglom 5y ago
    For me it has. Killed it's own configuration on several occasions or just hung.

tony124 5y ago

my experience with HA is very much the same, and I am also tired of baby-sitting HA. Last time it broke I didn't have time to fix and think maybe investment into OH will not be wasted. I'd like to set and forget, not to spend my time to assist something that is supposed to make my life easier.

Milner08 5y ago

I am interested in what baby sitting you have to do with HA? I would say my home assistant (on a Pi4) is stable maybe 95% of the time, with most issues solved with a reboot. The biggest of those rare issues is that my zigbee dongle occasionally just refuses to work which isn't really an issue with HA its self. I tried OpenHab in the past and was not a fan, but thats not to say its any worse.