New to home assistant suggestion

[wbravin (william bravin)]

Hello all

I trust you will all take this as a constructive post. I may be providing an opinion already voiced and is so i apologize for wasting your time

I’m new to home assistant although i love it. I am only now beginning to understand it.

I am migrating from a vera plus solution (way simpler solution however limited).

I struggled to no end with the installation and i finally got it up and running on debian (thanks to the patience of the individuals on in the community)

In my opinion (from a lame end user point of view) i found the installation over complicated, poorly documented on your site and with youtube videos offering diverse solution options (but not consistant).

I am not tech savvy by no means.

I currently have HA supervised on debian 11 on a laptop with a z-stick USB. and it is working fine (i will be adding a zigbee USB and (i hope not) shelly devices

IMHO i would suggest a review of your solution installation architecture and processes.

you have HA core, supervise and OS

I would suggest that HA supervise be an “addon” to HA core from the addon store (not a separate installation solution) and HA os be able to be install as a native os on all devices. This would simplify and make more consistent forums posts and youtube videos

The diverse platform architecture might this be difficult and expensive to do. i understand. However i believe that it would be in the long run, more economical to maintain and support

I understand that HA needs a container to work properly (or a VM). Fine. there are containers (or VMs) that could be installed on linux. ios, windows fbsd, PI, android and others, be it on a pc, mobile, server, or Pi.

this would greatly simplify the installation, the support and maintenance of HA and increase its market penetration.

Then issue will be to install the container or vm on the device for that platform not HA. both container and vm installations are well documented.

This would be easier to install on more powerful devices.

such a solution could bring a more simplified addon store ( currently HASS.io, Core integration, supervisor integration, and hacs) Now the only distinction would be supported addons and not

if this has already been discussed or brought forward … sorry ( i did not see it)

Be this as it may, I truly like HA and especially i would like to thank the community for taking the time and their willingness to support your users.

I would be happy to help if i can

Regards to all

[francisp (Francis)]

I think you don’t quite understand the current HA architecture

@wbravin

you have HA core, supervise and OS

I would suggest that HA supervise be an “addon” to HA core from the addon store

you have HA core, HA container, HA Supervised and HA OS.

HA core is just a python installation on any OS that supports Python 3.9 or higher.
HA container is a docker container that contains HA core, and everything needed to support HA core (it includes a minimal buildroot and all python required to run)
HA Supervised is a set of docker containers, including the HA core container, the Supervisor container, and several other docker containers required by Supervisor. It can also include other containers, called add-ons, which add functionality to the HA Supervised eco-system. The Supervisor manages the HA docker containers.
HA OS is HA Supervised, but with an included OS, so nothing more needed.

It is impossible to add Supervisor as an add-on to HA Core, since only installations which include Supervisor can install add-ons.

@wbravin

such a solution could bring a more simplified addon store ( currently HASS.io, Core integration, supervisor integration, and hacs)

I think you make a mistake here : HACS is an store for custom integrations, these can be installed on all installation methods. The Supervisor add-on store contains add-ons that only can be installed on systems that include Supervisor.

Custom integrations are not add-ons, they are just integrations that are not part of the core integrations.

[wbravin (william bravin)]

Thank you Francis for taking the time from your weekend to respond

My architecture

HP eltebook with debian 11 with docker
HA supervised (which also installed core as you know) installed in docker
aeotec z-stick 7 for all z-wave devices (in the near future i will add a zigbee usb)

Thank you for the education. I do understand what you mean and as i said i realise the road hazards and pitfalls.

I was just trying to convey my viewpoint based on my limited experience

once again thank you for the lesson

[tom_l]

As you said this:

@wbravin

I’m new to home assistant

And

@wbravin

I am not tech savvy by no means.

It might have been better if you started with a Home Assistant OS instal. Burn an SD card and put it in a Raspberry Pi. Done.

You can play around and learn. Then if later on if you need to move to more powerful hardware the configuration is easily transportable to the new system.

@wbravin

I trust you will all take this as a constructive post.

Likewise. This is not a personal criticism in any way, but the docs did say this:

[wbravin (william bravin)]

hello

@tom_l i take onboard your points.

Knowing only how to use windows, and because i have a few laptops at home. I chose to learning and install debian 11 on one of these laptop/

The effort required to learn debian is equal to that learn the PI OS ( in addition i would save the cost the pi and the monitor)

Hence If I had gone with the PI i would have been as frustrate as i am and i would have had the same comments (not the fault of HA)

[frits1980 (Frits)]

@wbravin

Hence If I had gone with the PI i would have been as frustrate as i am and i would have had the same comments (not the fault of HA)

No, because the pi installation doesn’t require you to install an OS first. So you didn’t have to learn a new OS.

And for a pi you don’t need a monitor at all.