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The brazenness of Chamberlain here is incredible given how problematic a garage door that opens by itself could prove to be, and they could have chosen to go on

The brazenness of Chamberlain here is incredible given how problematic a garage door that opens by itself could prove to be, and they could have chosen to go on about that, but instead they just go for the full crazy angle. Ultimately this whole using-a-product-means-using-the-user-experience-dictated-by-the-product-seller, be it SaaS, mobile app or hardware is a total dead end. The part Richard Stallman missed when arguing with his printer was you have to allow honest people to make money working in such an ecosystem, or you end up with no UX at all.

jstanley 3y ago
I don't think Richard Stallman missed that point at all.
- Joker_vD 3y ago
  The dude started the whole FSF movement because he wanted better printer drivers. As you may notice, forty years have passed and the printer drivers are still shitty, and still proprietary. So while his opinions about the goals may be interesting, his opinions on the means can be safely disregarded IMO.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    Printer drivers or firmware? Because the drivers are generally whatever CUPS works with, and are perfectly fine.
brightball 3y ago
I wish this door opener from Ryobi had caught on. Thought it was a great idea. https://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/ryobi-launches-line-garage-door-openers-accessories/ https://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/ryobi-launches-l...
- Tyr42 3y ago
  That is pretty cool. I would buy the ceiling cord and maybe the speaker. No more tripping hazards.
- wolrah 3y ago
  I have one of those and trust me, you do not want it. I was excited about it when we bought the house, but: 1. The remote control range is terrible. Both of our remotes regularly fail to operate the door from less than a car length in to the driveway, through a normal garage door in a normal wood framed home, even with fresh batteries. 2. EVERY control accessory is proprietary, even the wall button. Our house came with the button missing and it can't be replaced with just a normal button. The entire line is out of production as well so the only options for replacement are expensive NOS. Likewise for the keypad and remotes, there are no third party replacements that are compatible and the first party stuff is out of production. 3. The app doesn't work, it won't even detect the opener. Because even the button is proprietary I can't even install an aftermarket controller. The Ryobi opener has some great ideas like the accessory ports and the support for a battery backup using a battery many of us already have, but they went out of their way to make it worse than any other opener on the market in multiple ways and then abandoned their users. I'm going to be replacing mine with a simple dumb Genie or similar with a DIY controller hooked to the wall button port as soon as we get some garage work completed.
  - brightball 3y ago
    Yikes. Well, I feel better now. Guess that's why they discontinued it.
    - wolrah 3y ago
      > Yikes. Well, I feel better now. Guess that's why they discontinued it. My understanding is that the discontinuation was actually over patent issues or something in that general area.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    In my personal experience with Ryobi products, I would have been equally served buying from Harbor Freight. At least the prices would have been cheaper for an item that is expected to be a crap shoot on it working. Ryobi batteries have been known to be badly manufactured so a newly purchased battery will not charge. If you take the time to research it and call (no webform for this), they will ask for serial numbers and send you a replacement to be delivered. If there’s a known batch with defects, recall the damn products.
_ea1k 3y ago
That "opens by itself" angle is their excuse for not allowing good Alexa or IFTT integration.

jstanley 3y ago

I don't think Richard Stallman missed that point at all.

Joker_vD 3y ago
The dude started the whole FSF movement because he wanted better printer drivers. As you may notice, forty years have passed and the printer drivers are still shitty, and still proprietary. So while his opinions about the goals may be interesting, his opinions on the means can be safely disregarded IMO.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  Printer drivers or firmware? Because the drivers are generally whatever CUPS works with, and are perfectly fine.

brightball 3y ago

I wish this door opener from Ryobi had caught on. Thought it was a great idea. https://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/ryobi-launches-line-garage-door-openers-accessories/ https://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/ryobi-launches-l...

Tyr42 3y ago
That is pretty cool. I would buy the ceiling cord and maybe the speaker. No more tripping hazards.
wolrah 3y ago
I have one of those and trust me, you do not want it. I was excited about it when we bought the house, but: 1. The remote control range is terrible. Both of our remotes regularly fail to operate the door from less than a car length in to the driveway, through a normal garage door in a normal wood framed home, even with fresh batteries. 2. EVERY control accessory is proprietary, even the wall button. Our house came with the button missing and it can't be replaced with just a normal button. The entire line is out of production as well so the only options for replacement are expensive NOS. Likewise for the keypad and remotes, there are no third party replacements that are compatible and the first party stuff is out of production. 3. The app doesn't work, it won't even detect the opener. Because even the button is proprietary I can't even install an aftermarket controller. The Ryobi opener has some great ideas like the accessory ports and the support for a battery backup using a battery many of us already have, but they went out of their way to make it worse than any other opener on the market in multiple ways and then abandoned their users. I'm going to be replacing mine with a simple dumb Genie or similar with a DIY controller hooked to the wall button port as soon as we get some garage work completed.
- brightball 3y ago
  Yikes. Well, I feel better now. Guess that's why they discontinued it.
  - wolrah 3y ago
    > Yikes. Well, I feel better now. Guess that's why they discontinued it. My understanding is that the discontinuation was actually over patent issues or something in that general area.
- dylan604 3y ago
  In my personal experience with Ryobi products, I would have been equally served buying from Harbor Freight. At least the prices would have been cheaper for an item that is expected to be a crap shoot on it working. Ryobi batteries have been known to be badly manufactured so a newly purchased battery will not charge. If you take the time to research it and call (no webform for this), they will ask for serial numbers and send you a replacement to be delivered. If there’s a known batch with defects, recall the damn products.

_ea1k 3y ago

That "opens by itself" angle is their excuse for not allowing good Alexa or IFTT integration.