I always thought Hassio was only hassio because Home Assistant is such a lot to type, so everyone used to abreviate it to hass anway. Now hass is Home Assistant Core, it will end up hassc or HAC (and lets hope they only have one install, else it will be HACS … which could get confusing
I have to agree with most on here. Leave Home Assistant as Home Assistant and do something with just the hassio branding. @jimz011 suggestion of Home Assistant Plus really does seem the most logical, as it adds stuff to the basic install.
I started using Home Assistant (and all parts that belong to it) only 4 weeks ago.
As mentiont before it took me quiet a lot of time to figure out, which components are meant in documentaion. Everyone is mixing all sorts of home assistant, ha, hass, hassio, hass.io, hassos, home assistant supervisor, hacs and so on.
So in first place I apreceate the clearer name therms, as they reffer on the product (Home Assistant) and its Components (Home Assistant Core, …).
Whats really needed is a more clear official documentation of these Parts, Components and Products. You need to get people that visit the Home Assistant Website to click on getting started and show them what you have, how it works an get them deeper in to topics later.
I know its hard to understand, since most of you guys are in to this since a long time. But show your Mom this site and even after a week she does not know what it is or how it works.
As a good example there is the raspberry pi documentation. It takes me 3 clicks to get to https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/raspberry-pi-setting-up and even a kid will get a raspberry pi to work.
This is where you need to get to explain terms and system structure in first place. If people get these basics, they wont ever use a wrong therm again. There will be way less topics with basic questions giving more time to focus on new solutions for a better (and easy accessable) Home Assistant.
Home Assistant (HA) - The overall Brand
Home Assistant Core (HA-C) - The core python
Home Assistant Supervisor (HA-Sup) - HassIO (the core in a supervisor environment)
Home Assistant OS (HA-OS) - HA-Sup on a dedicated OS distro ready to go.
It’s to way to look at it, person’s way or computer way,
.
fact: Specialists could adapt, not newbee.
It make sense to capitalize on “Home Assistant” as unique branding ( for people), and to decline specificities with an extra word.
Home assistant ARM (raspberry pi, biggest part of the community), would be a clear difference, with a single image to download. Sorting most people and hardware issue from begining.
I do understand the request of the greasy fingers specialists for “freedom” or “open source” purist. They should fully be part of the community, and many thank to them. But they should accept that basic user don’t have their skills. (Think assistance/hotline/forums and the words to be used)
In same kind of thinking, I would really recommend to differentiate physical hardware from virtual (device), real/virtual is very difficult concept to grab when not from IT background.
Can’t wait for Home Assistant ARM 1.0 , with auto discovery (no yaml file to bother/learn), drag and drop interface, with the full pleasure to spend time on making my own UI (and not reading hundred of hours of deprecated stuffs), I would love a better integration of node red as automation core, ( I mean here a simple way to have elements into UI).
Home Assistant (HA) - The overall Brand
Home Assistant Core (HA-C) - The core python
Home Assistant Supervisor (HA-Sup) - HassIO (the core in a supervisor environment)
Home Assistant OS (HA-OS) - HA-Sup on a dedicated OS distro ready to go.
The Germans will LOVE it as they Hate HassIO and HassOS today (Hass = Hate in German)
Maybe that’s why OpenHab is so popular in Germany.
@frenck I understand this, I’ve been using HA for a couple of years and have tried and run almost every flavor that is/was available. I don’t have an issue understanding it, although it took some time at the beginning I must admit.
The issue is the understanding of a new user. You need to take of the Dev hat off for a minute and think like someone that has no idea about what they don’t even know yet.
It needs to be simple, idiot proof. Having 2 installation methods using one name, and an OS named after the software is only going to lead towards more confusion.
The OS should have a different name, I suggested Nabu Casa OS before, but call it whatever - just something other than Home Assistant OS.
The naming scheme should be separated. Forget what you know about where it comes from on Github, think about from a user install perspective. They need to understand the differences.
Installation page of the Website:
Home Assistant VE - The advantages of installing Home Assistant in a Virtual Environment and use cases are… (list advantages)
Home Assistant Plus (Or other name) - This version has all the features almost every user could want, made simple etc etc…
Home Assistant Core - This version is a basic user version, a great place to get started and learn how to use the Home Assistant platform…etc etc.
Nabu Casa OS - This is our operating system that runs on a variety of machine types like Raspberry Pi’s and will allow the installation and secure use of Home Assistant Plus without any other fuss… etc etc.
The proposed change for me do not go far enough, nor clarify things, they only muddy the water.
I’m not saying my suggested way of naming or listing things is perfect, or the answer, I’m suggesting there is another, better way forward if you look for it.
This software is community driven, the fact that no one is prepared to even consider taking on feedback from the community is really disappointing. I’m going to have to leave this thread alone.
I’m not really sure how swapping some names around is a good thing…?
Perhaps it would have help 2 years ago, but now not so much.
In this day of internet you can’t rewrite everything in an instant. It’s going to take some time, even on your own website and docs, let alone on other sites.
Imagine all the mess this will create on all the currently available guides and videos, or just discussions on sites like reddit.
Now imagine someone using a search engine and searching the term home assistant. How confused they would be.
[quote=“Thewho, post:74, topic:167500”]
Imagine all the mess this will create on all the currently available guides and videos, or just discussions on sites like reddit.
It is not recommended to get your info from non-official sources, these are anyway outdated most of the time.
The one and only thing I hate about Home Assistant, HASS, whatever it is called one day to the next is having to try and explain to people that I’m trying to recomend it to that despite it being called Home Assistant, to search for HASS if you install it a certain way, and make sure you mention this, that or the other on the help forums if you need help depending on how it’s installed and if you can use addons. I usually get a message from them after they started researching asking if they need to worry about HassOS as well because Windows is their OS and without windows nothing would work…etc…
Its the biggest barrier to new adoptees next to Yaml, everyone is trying to get rid of yaml to make it more user friendly but those users I’m talking about are put off well before they even see any yaml.
(This is just in my experience based on convos with my friends/workmates who are mainly within IT but not DEVs)
With every respect, I really think you should re-think this! Why not a simple solution such as:
Home Assistant ==> Home Assistant Core Hass.io ==> Home Assistant OS
Making an OS is not the primary goal of the project. If you offer one, as least don’t pretend it’s the main product. You can of course refer to both packages using the common denominator “Home Assistant”, in cases that apply to both. A bonus advantage: you have much less documentation to update (resolving the Hass.io clash with Home Assistant).
True, maybe call HassOS something different then. Like Raspberry Pi doesn’t call its OS “Raspberry Pi OS” but Raspbian, clearly indicating it’s a side project based on Debian, as a vehicle for HA.
