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Why HA doesn't have a LTS branch is a mystery to me (other than the obvious maintenance overhead - but the community is huge and I'm sure they could find a main

Why HA doesn't have a LTS branch is a mystery to me (other than the obvious maintenance overhead - but the community is huge and I'm sure they could find a maintainer). When you consider the lifetime of homes, the hardware, etc it makes more sense for HA to have an LTS branch than almost any other piece of open source software. I, for one, would really appreciate getting bug fixes, security updates, etc over a span of years for some installations. HA development pace is very impressive but the breaking changes can get old really fast, especially when you consider how much you can come to depend on the (ample) functionality. When it comes to doing updates I typically allocate at least a few hours (just in case) to work through any breaking changes. I usually update ~monthly and like any rolling release strategy it helps minimize the number of breaking changes you experience at any one time but it's still a somewhat precarious situation.

bluGill 3y ago
Master needs to be the LTS branch, at least for all things mentioned. Once I have an automation it needs to work for as long as I live in the house. I have better things to do than to maintain the system. I probably won't upgrade the server at all for many years until I buy some new device that isn't supported by the old version, and I expect my house to still work after that upgrade, without having to spend days trying to remember how that old automation was programmed.
- bombcar 3y ago
  This here is exactly why the "smart home" is basically failing, because it needs to be set and forget and continue to work with ZERO maintenance beyond replacing dead components. The fourth or fifth time you have to explain to your spouse that the lights in the living room can't be turned on because the app is updating or the server is down or whatever, you're going to really be feeling the desire to remove all the smart home stuff and go back to kerosene lanterns. Which is one of the reason that I've slowly begun to phase Hue bulbs out - they work very well for what they do, but they can fail in annoying ways when the Internet is out, requiring you to get additional switches that can talk their protocol even when Siri isn't working, and at that point, why not just use a "smart switch" and dumb bulbs? At least that fails to just be a normal switch.
  - robertlagrant 3y ago
    > why not just use a "smart switch" and dumb bulbs I think this is just a better idea all round, although possibly not for bulb manufacturers' share prices.
    - bluGill 3y ago
      The two need to work together. The switch on the wall needs to be smart as anyone in my house needs to be able to use it to control the bulbs, without having to open an app. Okay, if you can ensure a thief cannot control my lights while I'm my house I'm good with that, but I have kids, guests, and sometimes I don't have a device on me: it must work for all of them the first time and every time. A bulb cannot do that alone, it must have a smart switch (I've used the flip the switch off/on to control the bulb - it is not an acceptable work around). The bulb however need the ability to charge color temperature and brightness depending on what I want, and a smart bulb seems best (though dumb dimming bulbs can to work well enough)
      - bombcar 3y ago
        What I'd love to see (and nobody makes, but I could make one myself with a bunch of switches I guess) is to have various plain bulbs of different colors, and control them with the switch. I wish the Hue bulbs worked with a actual smart switch (I have some of the snap on cover ones and they are "ok" but unsatisfying long-term. https://www.philips-hue.com/en-us/p/hue-tap-dial-switch/046677578800#overview https://www.philips-hue.com/en-us/p/hue-tap-dial-switch/0466... is silly, it's battery powered. The old one (Hue Tap) was great, because it used the force of the button press to send the signal needed: https://hueblog.com/2020/07/27/hue-tap-disappears-from-the-market-switch-is-obsolete/ https://hueblog.com/2020/07/27/hue-tap-disappears-from-the-m... So of course it's dead and gone :(
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
  - jackson1442 3y ago
- formerly_proven 3y ago
  There's commercial options that work like this (and indeed those installations can more or less be updated and upgraded with new stuff decades down the line, we've been there, it's been done, and continues to be done) but that's the rub: it's commercial, it costs money, and the hardware involved is much more expensive than cheap IoT gadgets out of shenzen. Wanting the lowestest cost option to also have the longestest life and highestest reliability is of course something we would all want, but generally not how this reality is structured.

bluGill 3y ago

Master needs to be the LTS branch, at least for all things mentioned. Once I have an automation it needs to work for as long as I live in the house. I have better things to do than to maintain the system. I probably won't upgrade the server at all for many years until I buy some new device that isn't supported by the old version, and I expect my house to still work after that upgrade, without having to spend days trying to remember how that old automation was programmed.

bombcar 3y ago
This here is exactly why the "smart home" is basically failing, because it needs to be set and forget and continue to work with ZERO maintenance beyond replacing dead components. The fourth or fifth time you have to explain to your spouse that the lights in the living room can't be turned on because the app is updating or the server is down or whatever, you're going to really be feeling the desire to remove all the smart home stuff and go back to kerosene lanterns. Which is one of the reason that I've slowly begun to phase Hue bulbs out - they work very well for what they do, but they can fail in annoying ways when the Internet is out, requiring you to get additional switches that can talk their protocol even when Siri isn't working, and at that point, why not just use a "smart switch" and dumb bulbs? At least that fails to just be a normal switch.
- robertlagrant 3y ago
  > why not just use a "smart switch" and dumb bulbs I think this is just a better idea all round, although possibly not for bulb manufacturers' share prices.
  - bluGill 3y ago
    The two need to work together. The switch on the wall needs to be smart as anyone in my house needs to be able to use it to control the bulbs, without having to open an app. Okay, if you can ensure a thief cannot control my lights while I'm my house I'm good with that, but I have kids, guests, and sometimes I don't have a device on me: it must work for all of them the first time and every time. A bulb cannot do that alone, it must have a smart switch (I've used the flip the switch off/on to control the bulb - it is not an acceptable work around). The bulb however need the ability to charge color temperature and brightness depending on what I want, and a smart bulb seems best (though dumb dimming bulbs can to work well enough)
    - bombcar 3y ago
      What I'd love to see (and nobody makes, but I could make one myself with a bunch of switches I guess) is to have various plain bulbs of different colors, and control them with the switch. I wish the Hue bulbs worked with a actual smart switch (I have some of the snap on cover ones and they are "ok" but unsatisfying long-term. https://www.philips-hue.com/en-us/p/hue-tap-dial-switch/046677578800#overview https://www.philips-hue.com/en-us/p/hue-tap-dial-switch/0466... is silly, it's battery powered. The old one (Hue Tap) was great, because it used the force of the button press to send the signal needed: https://hueblog.com/2020/07/27/hue-tap-disappears-from-the-market-switch-is-obsolete/ https://hueblog.com/2020/07/27/hue-tap-disappears-from-the-m... So of course it's dead and gone :(
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
- jackson1442 3y ago
formerly_proven 3y ago
There's commercial options that work like this (and indeed those installations can more or less be updated and upgraded with new stuff decades down the line, we've been there, it's been done, and continues to be done) but that's the rub: it's commercial, it costs money, and the hardware involved is much more expensive than cheap IoT gadgets out of shenzen. Wanting the lowestest cost option to also have the longestest life and highestest reliability is of course something we would all want, but generally not how this reality is structured.