Founder Home Assistant here. Want to chime in that I always love to see write ups like these to see the great things what people achieve with Home Assistant.
Not everyone might know, but last year we started the Open Home Foundation[1] as a non-profit in Switzerland and I donated Home Assistant to it[2]. It's fully funded by users. There are no investors involved.
We are fully committed to building out a smart home that focuses on local control and privacy. Yes there are rough edges, but we're actively working on it in the open, with progress being released every month.
At some point a company is going to start making hackable, local connection devices (cloud optional) with published APIs and sell them at a higher price tag, and they’re going to be fabulously wealthy, commanding higher margins than the others.
At least, that’s what I like to tell myself.
balloob · 9m ago
There is Zigbee, Z-Wave and Matter. These are all smart home standards that are fully local and devices will be able to be set up and used even when the company goes out of business. You are however limited to the things that are standardized.
If you want to go a step further, look for devices made for ESPHome or devices made by Shelly. Both have local APIs and are very hackable.
(disclosure: I am the president of the Open Home Foundation and ESPHome is one of our projects and I am also a board member of the Z-Wave alliance)
readthenotes1 · 36m ago
The data ownership reminds me a bit of an early business ummm transaction if Dr Phil:
1. Sell the gullible public long-term memberships to a gym, with long-term subscriptions.
Not everyone might know, but last year we started the Open Home Foundation[1] as a non-profit in Switzerland and I donated Home Assistant to it[2]. It's fully funded by users. There are no investors involved.
We are fully committed to building out a smart home that focuses on local control and privacy. Yes there are rough edges, but we're actively working on it in the open, with progress being released every month.
~Paulus Founder Home Assistant & President Open Home Foundation https://github.com/balloob
[1]: https://www.openhomefoundation.org [2]: https://www.openhomefoundation.org/blog/announcing-the-open-...
https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/1017720/7155ecb9602e9ef2/
At least, that’s what I like to tell myself.
If you want to go a step further, look for devices made for ESPHome or devices made by Shelly. Both have local APIs and are very hackable.
(disclosure: I am the president of the Open Home Foundation and ESPHome is one of our projects and I am also a board member of the Z-Wave alliance)
1. Sell the gullible public long-term memberships to a gym, with long-term subscriptions.
2. Sell the subscriptions to a 3rd party.
3. Close gym. Subscription contract still valid.
https://www.celebitchy.com/8971/dr_phil_ran_a_health_club_sc...