What is the difference between Hassbian and HASS.io?

Hello,

I still don’t understand difference between Hassbian and Hass.io.

Thanks

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Hassbian…Linux OS(I think raspbian) with home Assistant in Virtual Environment.

HASS.io…Resin OS with home Assistant in docker container. There is option to install some useful item direct from UI as well

Is it a recommendation which installation use?

Preference really.

I like docker so hass.io would be my preference.
Update is easier as well

I want to create new graphic component or edit existing component. It depends on the selection installation?

You can create component for both and it should work

I summarise the difference here.

HassIO is for those who want it to “just work”. Hassbian for those who’re not devs but want to tinker IMO.

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hassio = basic tinkering, better UX for everyone

hassbian = advanced tinkering, suitable for anyone with *nix experience. can modify generally everything.

After using hass.io for a while now I think it’s time to give a reaction to this thread. Because there are just some things I think which are not right.

Hass.io:
Goal: make it easier to setup.
Reality: it does a little bit, until you run into an error.

Goal: make the UX more intuitive.
Reality: it’s just as cluttered and unclear as hassbian.

For the ones working hard on hass.io: create a solid foundation before overwhelming everybody with the amount of components. Also maybe really look for a good UX designer, because the whole think still can’t compete with commercial products like athom homey. My understanding of hass.io was that it finally should become a product which would really be game changing, but instead it gives me more headache then hassbian did. I’m missing the possibility to just install something and have it work out of the box. But no, almost everything needs debugging and configging. Then when I want to create a simple automation like turn light of in room A, 5 minutes after I turned it on. It impossible to do for a normal person. And I thought node-red should make this easy. Well it doesn’t. Because you still have to be a scriptkiddy to make the happen. So after 2 years using hassbian and hass.io I still can’t create any automation. Because I want a UI that does that instead of me. So apparently I’m still better of buying an Athom Homey or going to the old domoticz… Or am I missing something?

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You’re missing that Hass.io and Hassbian are ways of installing Home Assistant.

Underneath it’s still just Home Assistant, there’s no separate UI (other than the extra bit for the add-ons).

And yes, IMO, if you want a point and click home automation solution then right now Home Assistant isn’t for you. It’s getting there, the automation editor was a step in that direction, but it’s some way off still I suspect.

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I know hass.io is still home assistant. And I know it’s a work in progress. But I’m missing the progress in that direction (don’t want to step on anyone’s toes though, I know people are working very hard in their spare time). In almost all sprints I see 80% about improvement in components and 15% core improvement. But only 5% is shared for UX and design.

I think home assistant is missing a goal and a mission statement. Because what is the goal actually? Be a system for programmers and scripters to do some funky stuff in their houses?
I was under the impression it was to deliver a system capable of making home automation easier and being compatible with a lot of stuff.

But maybe I missed something?

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honestly IMO, if anyone wants to get into home automation, they need an understanding of how to program. home automation is not simple, no matter how intuitive the GUI may be. its like learning to read books… when you were a child, you looked at pictures. but eventually you learned to read and write text.

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I disagree. The logic of home automation are relatively simple rules. Which I think are for 80% covered by an ifttt (not the app) procedure. And since ifttt (the app) has made it clear that these types of procedures are very capable of being made with a GUI, why would we make it harder then it should be. The more advanced logic is still programmed in a procedural style (not OO) and let’s itselves easily translate to a GUI too. And isn’t programming these days all about reusing code, making it simple to do stuff everybody does (objects in frameworks)? So why not make it simple to do stuff everybody does?

IMHO your way of thinking about the people who may utilize home automation is exactly why some companies fail to succeed in business. You choose to limit possibilities because you believe that people who don’t understand programming have no business working with home automation. If you actually think like that I think you have no business being a programmer.

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It probably depends on what you expect. In my opinion home-assistant is simple and convenient after a relative short time of reading through documentations and understanding the logic. I would always prefer a program like home-assistant because usually GUIs are not as comfortable and fast.

In my opinion, it is a very fundamental question of concept similar to latex vs. word (text editing), eclipse vs. netbeans (java),…
From the efficiency perspecitve, I would always prefer the gui-less editing concept, but I understand that others prefer a GUI.

What I meant to say is: when you wanna be great you have to aim high. If you wanna aim high you have to reach more then a few nerds and maybe some early addopters.

For instance the rise of the smartphone lead by Apple, Steve did not aim for a phone usable for only a happy few, he wanted nothing less then a phone that is comprehensive and usable for the avarage businessmen/women. Though he didn’t give in to a lack of features because it was ‘hard’ to create a GUI for.

But everything comes down to what I’ve said before. HA is missing a goal and a mission statement. But I really hope that is where Ubiqiuti is going to be dealing with.

If IFFT meets your needs than you should just get IFFT compatible devices and use that. HomeAssistant is addressing the 20% that IFFT can’t do, and by necessity needs to be more complex. There are definitely some things that could be accomplished by GUI, but it will take a lot of work by some smart people to make it super easy to use. No home automation system has make a super powerful, super easy to use system with tons of integrations yet. You always have to choose 2.

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I’m sorry for bringing such an old topic back to live, but I have a question about Hass.io vs Hassbian (or a Manual installation on a Raspberry Pi) and thought it’s better than starting a new topic

I am planning to reinstall my HA setup because I want to do things the right way now after tinkering around for a while. I feel like my current setup has a lot of loose ends and is cluttered.
In short: I want a fresh start.

I currently still use hassbian which will not be continued. But it is still possible to install Home Assistant in a Virtual Environment on a Raspberry Pi.

So right now I need to decide which path to take Hass.io or Virtual Environment.

I was decently confident in using Hassbian. Sometimes things could have been a little easier, but I enjoyed the freedom and customizability.
I also would not mind an easier setup and some other amenities from Hass.io but I’m afraid it will come at the price of " freedom and customizability".

Is Hass.io very separated from the Raspberry OS? I’ve read that it does not offer the same capabilities as Hassbian when it comes to accesing the command line and installing libraries.
Can I be sure, that everything that currently runs on my Hassbian will run in Hass.io?

Thanks in advantage

Well that’s not so simple to answer. What currently runs on your hassbian?

The eq3btsmart Component for example needs an extra library that I had to install and also some command line setup.
I also have a Command Line Sensor that uses SSH to check if my computer is running.
Or some custom_components that did not make it into the main repository yet.

I use a bunch of custom_components and also command_line sensors… they all work but with command line sensors it can depend on what commands are used. I did have to work around that limitation when I was writing a command line sensor for one of my applications due to restrictions in the bash shell commands available. Anyway, maybe grab a spare SD card and run up hass.io and see if it works for you.

The other way you could go is Raspbian Lite and then a generic linux install of Hass.io. That works great and I was running that prior to migrating to a NUC. Best of both worlds with this kind of setup.