I quite like @osiangwynedd’s approach. And the lazy ones (aren’t we all?) could call them HAA, HAC, HAP … and HAL even!
Also, if the team later on decided to switch to another Linux, it’d be Linux still (not a brand name).
I still somehow feel not everyone might know what an “appliance” is, but it’s certainly much shorter and less cumbersome to speak than my originally proposed “All-in-one”. The first sentence in the install docs could say “An applicance is an All-In-One installation, ready-made for hardware xy.”.
I’d still propose staying away from marketing names like One/Plus/Prime, or anything that might suggest the others were inferior. Just imagine we had “Plus” or “Platinum” already (actually product names!) and HA 1.x or 2.x came out, how would we name those? “++”? “Platinum+”?
“Home Assistant OS” should be reserved to not name an install method, but the actual OS HA runs under. (“What is your HA OS?” … “Linux”, “Raspberry Pi OS”, “Debian”, …)
“Home Assistant” should be reserved to name the actual product, i.e. after installation. (“What Home Automation do you use?” … “I used xyzzy before, but since I switched to Home Assistant, I’m really happy. And don’t feel any HASS anymore!” (scnr))
@123: Speaking names (apt[r]onyms): A name that resembles what somebody/something is or does, most often used when speaking about persons, i.e. Jules Angst, professor who published about anxiety, or Colin Bass, bassist in the rock band Camel.
You don’t think that a model from a car manufacturer is branding? The car manufacture Ford (Home Assistant) makes a Mustang (Home Assistant Supervised) a Focus (Home Assistant Core) etc, you get the idea.
The names of the variants, or models are absolutely part of branding. This is the reason so many people still use the term Hass.io, because that variant of HA had a unique name that embedded itself in peoples mind. That is branding.
People don’t say they want a Ford, they say they want a Mustang.
Volvo = Home Assistant
760 GLE = Home Assistant Supervied
Year Model 2020 = 0.111.0
Floor mats, rain sensing wipers and tow bar package = the integrations I use
OT: I wish they were … sigh. Actually had one for 18 years (!) and was very happy with it.
Anyway, it’s nice to explore how viewpoints differ. Let’s hope for the best possible outcome. Poor team—it’s hard allowing democratic decisions, even if only for naming something.
Let’s call the desire to abbreviate things, “typing efficiency”.
If they grow weary of typing it out, “HAS OS” isn’t a bad abbreviation.
The supervised version without an included operating system can be “No OS” or "NoOS, or just “NOS”. Home Assistant Supervised NOS (abbreviation: HAS NOS).
That’s an excellent question. At first I was under the impression it was product-oriented but that makes little sense because these aren’t four different products. At best, there are only two categories of product:
Core with or without supervision.
With supervision:
hass.io
Supervised
Without supervision:
Container
Core
For a new user choosing an installation method, that’s their most important initial choice: do they want a supervised or non-supervised instance of Home Assistant?
Based on numerous posts in a recent topic (i.e. Deprecation of Supervised) it became clear that a surprising number people don’t know what they installed nor its capabilities. This results in questions like “Can I use Add-ons with Core?”. This confusion can be minimized by promoting the fact there are two categories of installation methods, namely supervised and non-supervised.
The four installation methods become:
Supervised OS
Supervised NOS
Coretainer
Core
As mentioned previously, hass.io and Supervised share the same list of docker containers. The only significant difference is one contains an operating system and the other requires that you supply it. That’s why I feel there shouldn’t be a dramatic difference in their names because they’re effectively the same thing (or at least markedly different from what you get with Container or Core).
Method
Supervisor
Add-ons
Snapshots
Operating System
Docker
Supervised OS
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Supervised NOS
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Coretainer
No
No
No
No
Yes
Core
No
No
No
No
No
From the development’s team perspective, they would prefer if new users chose the Supervised OS method because it offers administrative convenience and is tightly coupled with the project’s own operating system (thereby minimizing potential OS software conflicts and ensuring updates).
To say that I don’t care would be wrong But whatever happens, I WANT the installation page to have THAT table included so that it’s fresh in everyone’s mind when they choose AND when they ‘forget’ what they installed.
Really like the approach you use. My perspective on the names would be a (little) bit different though. I feel your naming already assumes rather extensive knowledge of the various versions.
My suggestion would be a somewhat popularized (call it simplified, or nooby) naming:
Method Supervisor Add-ons Snapshots Operating System Docker
All-in-One Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Supervised (Docker) Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Docker No No No No Yes
Core No No No No No
reading from top to bottom, it makes it clear one steps down in completeness from full to core…
I quite like where this evolves, and especially the table. YES PLEASE, put it into a prominent place in the docs!
My only objection is “Supervised NOS”—I once learned never to call something “Not-…” or “No-…”. Why not call this “Supervised” only? Like “Core” and “Coretainer” we could have “Supervised” and “Supervised OS” symbolizing there is something extra added.
I have to agree with you. Putting ‘No’ or ‘Not’ in a brand name is bad marketing. You don’t have Coca Cola No Sugar, there is Coca Cola Light and Coca Cola Zero.
Brilliant! It leaves the existing Supervised name untouched and simply renames hass.io to Supervised OS.
Method
Supervisor
Add-ons
Snapshots
Operating System
Docker
Supervised OS
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Supervised
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Coretainer
No
No
No
No
Yes
Core
No
No
No
No
No
The only other renaming I suggest is Container to Coretainer in order to highlight its close association with Core (it’s simply Core but distributed as a docker container).
Maybe it’s the language barrier (I’m german), but does supervised really convey which technical approach is being used to deliver the product (Home Assistant) to native speakers without a deeper IT background? As someone who knows the different installation methods I was able to guess what supervised could mean when I first heard it. But if that hadn’t been the case, the word alone probably wouldn’t have told me anything about what I would be installing.
Obviously this decision (how to name to installation method) shouldn’t be driven by the linguistic capabilities of potential users. It’s more a question out of curiosity targeted at native speakers, not meant to doubt about the wording.
To me, supervised sounds more like a web-hosting package where maintenance / updates / etc. is included and done by the vendor. I just upload my website and forget about it. But that wouldn’t be the case with any of these installation methods, as they are all self-hosted.
Frankly, I don’t think the word “Supervised” is truly a technical term. It’s definition is:
observe and direct the execution of (a task, project, or activity).
Arguably, the word “Managed” might have been more appropriate but “supervised” isn’t too far from the mark. On the hand, “Container” is short-hand for “Docker Container” and that is definitely a technical term. However, given that fact that the installation methods are closely tied to an underlying technology, it’s difficult to convey meaning without employing some degree of technical terminology.
If the goal is to avoid all technical terms and remain “language-neutral”, then we’re back to Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze (whose ranking, I believe, remains the same regardless of language and culture).
In either case, whether one’s choice is “Supervised OS” or “Platinum”, there ought to be a table explaining what that gets you compared to the other three choices.
I’m pretty sure this is what I said a while back, but you said it better
I’ve just read about the last 50 posts as I haven’t been stalking the forum today but I’m pretty sure someone else mentioned this idea several posts back and I was shocked no one else picked up on it. I’d say it was virtually mandatory. Although to be fair ‘the above structure’ has actually fleshed it out (very effectively).
I agree. And also, whilst the literal meaning of ‘supervised’ does indeed fit perfectly I think (in English) it has connotations close enough to a technical slant that it might ‘frighten’ people. In fact in this context it is actually being used in a technical context. FWIW, I really don’t like ‘Supervised’
I do like ‘Suite’. It describes what it is without needing to go any further. You install the suite, you get everything. Whatever that is and if you don’t want to know, you don’t need to know just install it.
I think that if a common abbreviation like “OS” is sufficient to confound a new user, they will be overwhelmed by the rest of Home Assistant’s unique terminology (automations, triggers, templates, etc). There’s a minimum expected level of fluency.
My concern is that the result of this grand undertaking will be the renaming of one installation method, to something like “One” and overlooking the opportunity to address the other three methods. Now would be the time to choose names that reflect the associations each has with the other. In a nutshell, you want each table-row’s name to say something about its feature-set.
but I’m pretty sure someone else mentioned this idea several posts back and I was shocked no one else picked up on it. I’d say it was virtually mandatory. Although to be fair ‘the above structure’ has actually fleshed it out (very effectively).