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The hate for the HomeAssistant OS is misplaced. It's just an appliance that manages its own software packages. Like for example the author could have set up Zig

by Spivak 1y ago

The hate for the HomeAssistant OS is misplaced. It's just an appliance that manages its own software packages. Like for example the author could have set up Zigbee2MQTT entirely through the web GUI.

jrm4 1y ago
It's really not though; I went with it for a while then it did this weird diverging thing with updates and full versions that I still don't fully understand because I just got fed up with it.
- nomel 1y ago
  It really is the design and intent, though. What year was this? Things are much more stable than in the early days.
skgough 1y ago
HomeAssistant's dependency requirements are so complex as to make a deployment of it essentially read-only. Trying to mod it with HACS is so hard that I gave up even though I write python for a living. I can't recommend it to anyone that doesn't know how to use linux at an expert level. This detracts from it's mission IMO; I would like to tell my family to use it instead of Google Home or Amazon whatever but it is so fragile that I can't do that in good conscience.
- Spivak 1y ago
  My install has been essentially maintenance free for years. I don't imagine many casual users that just want an app/gui for their smart outlets will be reaching for HACS. HA even warns you when you install HACS that you're voiding all the warranties.
- justusthane 1y ago
  HACS is very easy _if_ you’re using the HA OS installation method, in which Home Assistant manages its own containers (requires bare metal or a dedicated VM). I’d have no hesitation recommending it to someone who is just tech savvy enough to operate Home Assistant itself (e.g. setting up automations). I’ll also echo the sibling commenter re: running it for years with no maintenance besides occasionally installing the updates.
Arch-TK 1y ago
Author here. Just to be clear, the one paragraph that indirectly references HA was not intended as "hate". It was intended solely as gentle mockery and a bit of humour. I think it should be very clear from the article that my Mosquitto + Z2M + mqttr + bash + jq solution, while feature-complete for my purposes, is not a competitor to HA, which I have never used or tried. Why have I never tried HA? To run it, I would need to either create a VM or buy dedicated hardware. First, I don't want any more dedicated hardware in my house. Second, I like to keep the number of hosts I need to secure, manage, and keep running to a minimum. Third, from what I've heard (from people insisting it can't run on cheaper SBCs), it's not light; I was genuinely concerned about the server load on my single, low-power home server which already handles other things. I imagine that for many people, Home Assistant works great: the UI is what they like, it never breaks, and they never have to troubleshoot it. Or, if it does break, they're satisfied with just backing up their configuration and reinstalling it. But for me, when it comes to things I set up in my own time for my own use, I like to understand everything I am managing so I can quickly understand any failures. If I am going to use a ZBMINIR2 in detached mode to have my smart lights effectively on 100% of the time with the only method of control being Zigbee + glue, the glue had better be: a. rock-solid, b. trivial to troubleshoot, and c. easy to fix. I am not confident that I could learn, and retain, enough knowledge about HA to be able to achieve those three goals. Lastly, I have extensive experience of DIYing my own solutions to problems for which working off-the-shelf solutions exist. This is not because I am a contrarian who hates everything that works, although maybe there's a tiny bit of that. The reason I didn't use HA wasn't because I hate it; I didn't use it because I wanted the pleasure of solving that problem myself.
- pfp 1y ago
  First, thank you for the article, this is exactly what I need. As for Home Assistant, I share your sentiment. I run my own stuff because I want to understand my infrastructure (vs. a black box from Philips) and to minimize the amount of code running around. I'm sure HA is a better opaque box than the commercial ones for many people, but running it would still leave me with the same feeling of having outsourced critical knowledge - plus the compute costs.

by Spivak 1y ago

The hate for the HomeAssistant OS is misplaced. It's just an appliance that manages its own software packages. Like for example the author could have set up Zigbee2MQTT entirely through the web GUI.

jrm4 1y ago

It's really not though; I went with it for a while then it did this weird diverging thing with updates and full versions that I still don't fully understand because I just got fed up with it.

nomel 1y ago
It really is the design and intent, though. What year was this? Things are much more stable than in the early days.

skgough 1y ago

HomeAssistant's dependency requirements are so complex as to make a deployment of it essentially read-only. Trying to mod it with HACS is so hard that I gave up even though I write python for a living. I can't recommend it to anyone that doesn't know how to use linux at an expert level. This detracts from it's mission IMO; I would like to tell my family to use it instead of Google Home or Amazon whatever but it is so fragile that I can't do that in good conscience.

Spivak 1y ago
My install has been essentially maintenance free for years. I don't imagine many casual users that just want an app/gui for their smart outlets will be reaching for HACS. HA even warns you when you install HACS that you're voiding all the warranties.
justusthane 1y ago
HACS is very easy _if_ you’re using the HA OS installation method, in which Home Assistant manages its own containers (requires bare metal or a dedicated VM). I’d have no hesitation recommending it to someone who is just tech savvy enough to operate Home Assistant itself (e.g. setting up automations). I’ll also echo the sibling commenter re: running it for years with no maintenance besides occasionally installing the updates.

Arch-TK 1y ago

Author here. Just to be clear, the one paragraph that indirectly references HA was not intended as "hate". It was intended solely as gentle mockery and a bit of humour. I think it should be very clear from the article that my Mosquitto + Z2M + mqttr + bash + jq solution, while feature-complete for my purposes, is not a competitor to HA, which I have never used or tried. Why have I never tried HA? To run it, I would need to either create a VM or buy dedicated hardware. First, I don't want any more dedicated hardware in my house. Second, I like to keep the number of hosts I need to secure, manage, and keep running to a minimum. Third, from what I've heard (from people insisting it can't run on cheaper SBCs), it's not light; I was genuinely concerned about the server load on my single, low-power home server which already handles other things. I imagine that for many people, Home Assistant works great: the UI is what they like, it never breaks, and they never have to troubleshoot it. Or, if it does break, they're satisfied with just backing up their configuration and reinstalling it. But for me, when it comes to things I set up in my own time for my own use, I like to understand everything I am managing so I can quickly understand any failures. If I am going to use a ZBMINIR2 in detached mode to have my smart lights effectively on 100% of the time with the only method of control being Zigbee + glue, the glue had better be: a. rock-solid, b. trivial to troubleshoot, and c. easy to fix. I am not confident that I could learn, and retain, enough knowledge about HA to be able to achieve those three goals. Lastly, I have extensive experience of DIYing my own solutions to problems for which working off-the-shelf solutions exist. This is not because I am a contrarian who hates everything that works, although maybe there's a tiny bit of that. The reason I didn't use HA wasn't because I hate it; I didn't use it because I wanted the pleasure of solving that problem myself.

pfp 1y ago
First, thank you for the article, this is exactly what I need. As for Home Assistant, I share your sentiment. I run my own stuff because I want to understand my infrastructure (vs. a black box from Philips) and to minimize the amount of code running around. I'm sure HA is a better opaque box than the commercial ones for many people, but running it would still leave me with the same feeling of having outsourced critical knowledge - plus the compute costs.