To add some reference to power consumption, I wanted to share. I’m using a NUC6i7KYK with windows 10 as the base OS, running HassOS VM (19 containers/addons, Zwave/ZHA) using VirtualBox. I am also running a separate Ubuntu VM along side. It uses under 6W at idle.
I decided to Tasmoda flash all my devices to get the manufacturers’ sneaky, spying BIOSs off, and go to HA to get off the cloud. Ordered the whole suggested Pi setup. Then, immediately, read read this thread. After checking out what I could find on Blue I decided to cancel my order and go Blue, but thyen I found that Blue is sold out and will be unavailable for quite some time. I have an extra laptop, or several, in various staged of decrepitude. I’m sure one of them is good enough to run HA until Blue, (which won’t be blue after this first sold out batch), is shipping again. But I find no distro for this purpose. Is there a doc anywhere with install/set up guidance on an (already) Linux laptop?
There’s a bunch of them in the Guides section here.
Personally if you’re looking for add-ons, I’d highly recommend using Proxmox or another VM solution to run Home Assistant OS in a VM.