this is my only gripe with the word “one”. I don’t even like “prime” but it’s better than “one”
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Call it what it is. It contains the OS, call it Home Assistant OS.
Supervised should be Home Assistant Supervised.
The docker image alone should be Home Assistant Docker.
Minimal confusion if the names are straighforward.
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But they actually do miss some things if they choose other installation methods - they lose the supervisor/add-ons and don’t have to worry about installing their own OS as it’s included.
the problem then is going to be that, since people are lazy, they will just leave out the “supervisor” part and they will call it “Home Assistant OS” and “Home Assistant Debian”.
So you will still end up with hassio being called “HA OS”
But HA even in it’s “core” configuration it’s still a “hub” as long as you have the appropriate connected hardware. And without the extra hardware required it isn’t a “hub” in the strict sense of what that means in IoT. Without the hardware it’s just software so “Hub” doesn’t correctly describe it.
Since people think that “All-in-One” is too long then I think that “Complete” is the most logical.
Every “Home Assistant” comes with “Core” as it’s base. Without it you don’t have “Home Assistant”.
The only difference between the “Core”, “Container” and “Supervised” installation methods and the old Hassio is that Hassio comes with its own OS. Home Assistant OS is (kind of…) already taken.
So you can think of it like:
- “Home Assistant Core” - installed on your own OS and is the minimum required to get HA.
- “Home Assistant Docker” - installed on your own OS but as a Docker container to get HA Core running.
- “Home Assistant Supervised” - installed on your own OS as a Docker container to get HA Core but you also get the supervisor/add-ons
- “Home Assistant Complete” - comes complete with everything you need including the OS to get the full HA experience with minimum setup required.
All have one descriptive name so we won’t get into abbreviations and every name pretty much exactly describes what you get within the limitations that a one word description allows.
Calling one installation method “OS” and the other “Supervised” belies the fact they have a great deal in common. They share the same list of docker containers:
homeassistant
hassio_supervisor
hassio_dns
hassio_audio
hassio_cli
hassio_multicast
The only tangible difference is that one installation method includes an operating system and the other does not. If the plan is to append “OS” to indicate it has an included operating system, then the converse is to add “No OS”, or perhaps just “NOS”, to the other one.
Home Assistant OS
Home Assistant NOS
However, this doesn’t address the problem that Home Assistant OS is a term already in use to describe the custom operating system developed by Pascal (based on buildroot). By recycling this name to mean something else, it creates the same pitfall of the original rebranding of hass.io to Home Assistant…
That’s why I had proposed including the word “Supervised” for both editions, followed by an operating system indicator. Because both are, in fact, supervised versions of Home Assistant (Core).
- Home Assistant Supervised OS
- Home Assistant Supervised Debian
- Home Assistant Coretainer
- Home Assistant Core
- 1 and 2 are virtually the same except for the inclusion of an OS.
- 3 and 4 are virtually the same except one is a container and the other isn’t.
- 1 and 2 are quite different from 3 and 4 (and their names reflect that).
The inclusion of the word “Supervised” is not only accurate, it’s more precise than synonyms for “has everything”.
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Isn’t part of the issue that HASS means hate in German?
I like Unity
I also suggested these over at the Github discussion.
Home Assistant Fuse
“join or blend to form a single entity”
Home Assistant Source
“a thing from which something originates”
It can’t be HassOS as Taras has already noted.
I also don’t like the idea of Prime or Plus, as noted, it makes it sound like an Amazon or Disney subscription. I don’t think there should be any confusion added to the mix making it appear outwardly that you have to pay.
I also don’t like AiO or Appliance as neither sound very elegant. HA is not a toaster or kettle, so don’t call it Appliance.
Agreed.
Of the suggestions I’ve seen so far, these are my favorites.
- One
- Unity
- Source
And I love the suggestion by Taras of Home Assistant Container be changed to Coretainer. Very accurate description and unique name.
I find it extremely odd that all the suggested names include “Home Assistant” in the name. What exactly are we naming here? Are we naming a product or an installation method? Including “Home Assistant” in the name seems pretty redundant for an installation method…
I feel like that is part of the confusion here. Including the term Home Assistant in all the names not only makes names arbitrarily longer, it legitimately adds confusion. After I pick my installation method then I’m left wondering, what exactly is Home Assistant? Nothing seems to actually be named that, so is it a company? I don’t know.
I’m going to propose a different idea. Lay out all the things the Home Assistant can provide as features. Like everything it could possibly provide at a super high level, so for instance things like OS/Host Management and Updates, Supervisor, Add-on Store, Integrations, Frontend/Dashboarding, Core entities, Core/Platform, etc. I’m certain I’m doing a poor job of describing these and missing loads but hopefully you get the idea.
Then once you have that, lay out the 4 installation methods as column headers. Name them more or less based on what you’re actually doing (All-in-one, Supervised on Linux, Docker, Venv). Then for each installation method check all the boxes that each supports and have a link to documentation that explains how to get the singular Home Assistant product set up via that installation method.
Maybe I’m alone here but I feel like these marketing style names have no place on an installation method. Home Assistant is the product here, regardless of how it is actually installed. Making each of these sound like separate products seems like it just creates confusion.
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@CentralCommand Just to try to pull it back a little here, as well as answer your question, yes this is only supposed to be a name to help distinguish installation types and not some brand name. Renaming the other installation types isn’t necessary. Home Assistant is what we all run.
“Home Assistant Container” is accurate and descriptive enough, for example. It doesn’t need to be changed.
I think Appliance is accurate.
I actually like Hub but I see that few others do. A hub is expected to more or less take care of itself, like all the others out there, and that’s what this does when you install it using the images that are provided or use the VM image.
All the other installs start heading more toward “self maintained HA server” where users make their own choices and get their hands in at increasing levels, in addition to installing it on different OS’s and bigger hardware.
But I think what is going to win here is “One”. 
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This is actually what I mentioned before. All but HA core are distributions. And like Linux we could treat it like Linux does. Ubuntu isn’t called Linux Ubuntu. Debian isn’t called Linux Debian. So why not call hass.io Habian or HaHub for that matter (though I don’t really like Hub because it usually stands for software and hardware combined). But it could as well be something completely different like Zoam or Yaga.
Hi All,
What about something simple, there is basically two concepts correct?
The all in one version (Hassio) which can be run on various OS/Docker/etc. and the base version that is currently (Core) which doesn’t have all the add-ons etc.So why not
(Home Assistant) Gold
(Home Assistant) Essential
And then you can add classifiers if necessary
HA Gold on HassOS (or if this is the most recommended call this HA Platinum)
HA Gold on Debian
HA Gold in Docker
HA Essential in Docker
HA Essential on Ubuntu
Then it is clear whether you are using the Gold (hassio) or Essential (core) and which environment you are running it in/on.
You can then just explain like most subscription type websites with a Essential/Gold breakdown with green ticks and red crosses of what you get in each version, and list the various platforms (with links to the install guides for each one) making it easy for people to select and jump straight to the correct guide for the version they want.
Simon.
The only suggestion so far that makes any sense is “Appliance”
Plus, prime etc suggest that the other methods are inferior, or that there is a cost involved.
One, gold, etc don’t tell you anything.
Appliance says exactly what it is.
A fridge or washing machine? Is that what HA is?
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I am aware.
In my part of the world an appliance is a fridge, washing machine, coffee machine, blender etc - Not a home automation product.
Branding is important. It would be a horrible name to use.
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Exactly, you don’t have to pick an OS for your washing machine do you. It comes built in.
We are talking about install methods not branding.
Branding should just be “home assistant” that’s the product
But I would argue that anyone new to home assistant and first looking to install the branding helps understanding of different install methods.
Many people like myself come with little no programming or software background at all. Advertising the simplest install method seems to be very appropriate. Anyone else who has the knowledge of anything else like containers dockers vm’s etc will have the vocabulary to discriminate between other install methods and then decide from there
Hi everyone,
How about calling it just Home Assistant All in One. After all, if I don’t mistake, we are looking for a name for the install method where everything is (HA, OS, addons…). It’s self explanatory, it’s for newbies…
I kind of agree, but when naming ‘one’ of a set of things it’s always wise to consider the group as a whole, given what we had (not criticising, just pointing out our history, if we hadn’t been there, we wouldn’t be here etc. ) I do think that coretainer puts a ‘nice’ term for a containered core, it’s neat and tidy.
Back to the new Hass.OS
I’ve read some other suggestions and there are quite a few acceptable but a number that I would Bury deep and conveniently forget where. Appliance to me means a generic ‘item’ you buy to fill a mundane need. Anyone could have made it and you couldn’t care less (as long as it’s cheap enough and reliable enough, it’ll do) as it’s not sexy and it basically only does one thing.
HA is far from mundane. (though I’m not sure I’d call it sexy either 
)
AND these are newbies we have to engage with (and that’s a good thing / opportunity)
Edit: @greengolfer below says : -
Where are you going here ? Just because its common in the networking / server industry, what bit of that means it will be be understood by a newbie, who mastered programming a VCR about the time they were no longer being made ?
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My turn to give it a go 
- Home Assistant Appliance
- Home Assistant for Debian
- Home Assistant for Docker
- Home Assistant Core
I saw that some don’t like appliance (fridge) but it is quite common in the networking/server industry to call the “All in one”, ready to use “appliance”.
If I understand correctly the idea is to give names that everyone will understand without a doubt. So reusing known names (appliance, debian, docker) helps.
My 2 cents…
GV
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The problem with the AIO name is that there used to be an installer for home assistant called AIO. Maybe we are far enough away from that and it’s no longer confusing to some. But I do like it.
Either way, I’m leading towards only renaming old hassio to something that describes a ‘total package’.
- Home Assistant Environment (HAE)
- Home Assistant AIO
- Booshie Home Assistant
As a Newbie, I certainly found it really confusing as to the various flavours and installations available, and that was before the last rename. The thing is, the installations method and what equipment you’ve got to run it on completely dictate whether you get a full or limited version of the product. And vice versa, if you want a particular product then it restrict you as to the hardware it runs on. It was very very difficult to cross-reference these. I wanted to run it on my small Linux box, but couldn’t work out why, after installation, it was missing things that I thought should have been there. Therefore giving the products a name is still indirect - as you hint, the name should actually self-describe what hardware/software/installation methods it is aimed at. Therefore, just as a suggestion, throw the idea out here, how about a completely direct and literal set of names:
Home Assistant (Appliance, or OS)
Home Assistant (Container)
Home Assistant (Linux)
Home Assistant (Python)
Therefore when people ask for help in forums, just giving the name tells you exactly what components in the product that person has got and what is possible or not possible with that installation. And if you know what hardware you want to run it on, you go directly to the documentation for that method. For example, I now know that the integrated text-to-speech is not available using container methods because the libraries are not built into the container images used for the container-only or Linux installs, they have to be available at the same “level” in the OS. But could I work that out initially? No. I had no conception as to why I couldn’t get TTS working on my Linux box. It was there in the HA documentation but it just wouldn’t work.