LOL. I'm sure you could mail them a check any time you want if you want to donate.
I always chuckle at comments like that. They are akin to those saying "I would gladly pay more taxes". Well, no one is stopping ya... Pay away, they'll accept it.
LOL. I'm sure you could mail them a check any time you want if you want to donate.
I always chuckle at comments like that. They are akin to those saying "I would gladly pay more taxes". Well, no one is stopping ya... Pay away, they'll accept it.
Hubitat wouldn't be around today if all they had were project managers.
While we are turning this thread into a dumpster fire that will soon be closed as having "run its course", I'll sneak this in before closure:
I very much enjoy them, and find them interesting/educational.
Seems to me that "to stay relevant long term" is really an existential question. Not one that I personally spend much time on, but still...good question. I'd like Hubitat to be relevant next month, if that's OK.
I have no frame of reference on long term relevance. I've been irrelevant quite some time.
EDIT: On a more serious note, I see Hubitat in the right discussions/reviews regularly. Seems like you are on the right track at this time to me!
Not sure how to take that comment, but as itās coming from you I wonāt take it negatively.
But in fact I bought and mailed Mike one of those ERIA AduroSmart Smart Dimming Starter Kits like 4 years ago.
Now I bought it to help with integration, but I told him I didnāt want it back after, he said he kinda liked the switch.
But if his address is still the same Iāll gladly send a $200 check or $200 worth of devices.
@mike.maxwell tell me what you want for Xmas.
In addition, I think the audience is not well understood, or at least not as stated.
For instance, my wife likes most of the automation I've created, however never in a million years would she think of an automation goal, much less implement it.
It seems to me that until home automation gets AI where you can discuss your needs with a computer there will be a large portion of the population that will be left out. And unfortunately the USA (which I'm part of) does not adopt new technology like Europe and Japan (just my observation of each country).
I keep on going back the an incident when I was 14 yo or so. My mom asked me if I would go next door to change a cord on one of their lamps. At that time I had no conception of a grown man not being able to change a lamp cord. I suspect that population has grown over the years.
Just my opinion.
Perhaps the OP question needs rephrased to something likeā¦What are Hubitatās ambitions for the future?
Does it simply want to generate sufficient revenue to survive each month? Does it want to continue in its niche market as is? Does it want to expand its product lines (e.g. devices or hub accessories) or add other services? Is world domination the end game?
I donāt think asking these questions are critical of or negative. We are not asking for product announcements or deadlines. We are wanting to know the direction of the company that we all have invested a fair amount of our money and time, to mainly reassure ourselves that we are compatible with where Hubitat will take our home automation journey.
You can get a previous generation C4 EA-1 controller (their most basic of that line) that works fine and still supported for about $150. Add a C4 remote for not much more and you get about the best replacement for a Harmony system. Current line controllers MSRP from $950 to $3500. The higher end ones have AV distribution capabilities that the lowest model does not. Users can do most of the system programming without a dealer. The most important thing a dealer is needed for is to add devices to the system. There are remote programmers who will do dealer required activities at a reasonable rate.
From an non-AV automation perspective Hubitat is just as capable as a C4 controller of any price. The rule engine is similar to Rule Machine but there are no apps like Room Lighting built into the system (there are some paid add ons). Hubitat has more device compatibility where the systems overlap. C4 probably has more alarm and barrier system integrations available. C4 shines in AV where none of the DIY systems really compare. C4 has good AV remotes and functional tablet/phone control. And dealer support.
There's a newer HAāC4 integration so I can now get some of my Hubitat devices into C4 via HA. A bit hacky but it works. All my core automation resides in Hubitat. I find all 3 systems + Apple Home & Alexa to be of use in making my home work as desired.
There's nothing magic about any of these automation systems. They're all event based. Keep track of the events and make things happen. Differentiation occurs based on scope and how all the parts work together. I do wish that Hubitat would increase its scope and I realize that would cost more and I would be willing to pay for it. I understand that is not how the company is currently focused.
This statement astounds me.
Iāve invested way more in GE/Samsung appliances, and vehicles from Volvo, VW, and Ford.
Should all of them have informed me of their corporate strategies? Should I perturbed that I wasnāt informed of Volvoās acquisition by Ford, and subsequent sale. VW never told me about their decision to manipulate emissions tests. And all these examples are publicly traded corporations who minimally should be responsible to their shareholders.
In contrast to Hubitat, which is privately held, and sure as hell doesnāt need to share its corporate vision with anyone. Amongst other things, doing so might compromise them in the highly competitive HA marketplace.
Sorry, It wasn't meant in a mean spirit. Was probably unnecessary to say at all, in retrospect.
It's a tough question, since being "relevant" depends on who you are asking... A total noob? A moonlighter? An enthusiast? A pro?
I think HE does the best job of anyone with staying in a sweet-spot for a wide variety of levels, but I don't see how any system can genuinely be relevant for a user's entire evolution of "I know zilch" -> "I'm pretty savvy or I'm an expert" evolution.
To proactively assist with that evolution, HE does stuff like offering BR & SAR in addition to RM & WebCore, but then some will criticize HE as confusing for having "too many" options. So you can't win them all!
I would offer one consideration for HE staff on this theme though...
A fair number of native integrations and drivers have not been updated/evolved in a long time... Given that community devs can (and do!) pick up that slack, I totally understand that competing needs with a small staff end up leaving those jobs as a lower priority.
But that can then become one barrier of entry for newer folks -- they boot up HE and dive in, only to find that some desired native integrations and drivers aren't up to snuff, so they have to use community stuff whether they want to or not. That steepens the initial learning curve.
Community dev'd stuff facilitates growth and loyalty for experienced users (awesome of course), but over-reliance on it can be intimidating for noobs & non-enthusiast users who just want the built-in/native stuff to work better instead of trying to navigate their own way thru community stuff (at least right off the bat).
TL;DR -- one suggestion for HE to consider about staying relevant & attractive to the newer-user end of the spectrum is to shore up the native integrations and drivers. If not that, dump all the native stuff and figure out a way more seamlessly integrate community stuff (take over HPM, vet what goes in there, etc).
Pretty sure it's when, so you had better start weekly RM classes soon...
Regarding RM being a barrier to entry on HE for more less sophisticated users (which is where the "big" part of the remaining market lives)...The broader market (not the geek/IT/love to tinker types) tend to also be thinking about what we consider very simple things - turn lights on/off via voice being most common, followed by simple automations via motion/door sensors, and maybe add a few buttons. I wouldn't point any of them at RM, Basic Rules will handle their automations and I think that app really is very easy to use. In fact (bold statement) "...even my wife..." (who is very bright, but totally uninterested in HA) could make sense of it if she was a little motivated.
So I don't see RM as a barrier at all in noob adoption of HE - most of them will never need its available complexity. Of course Basic Rules may not ideally suit every user and a visual flow might be easier for some % of the population but I don't see BR tripping up a big % of users looking to meet simpler needs. From a pure maketing perspective there is additional value in showing off a visual tool, I do get that as well. Just my 2 cents...
Are you guys even aware that during onboarding, a new user is introduced to Basic Rule? What does RM have to do with this? Even my very non-technical wife was able to figure out how to do a Basic Rule. Man, I'm sorry we don't have a perfect solution, but we certainly don't stop working at it.
Not to be defensive about it, but the people posting here are all experienced users, not noobs.
Oops...I meant to say Basic Rules not Simple Automations in my post above, I'll correct. I guess I've been here too many years.
We all good boss, wasnāt taking it any specific way.
On the lighter side, it was very funny how he portrayed HA:
I think youāre making assumptions about āattitudeā that can misunderstand the intended meaning.
IMO itās remarkable (in a good way) that the staff engage directly with users in as candid a manner as they do here.
Itās not purely a customer service portal in the traditional sense, so perhaps because some posts by staff are not necessarily carefully crafted statements designed to make the customer feel as though theyāre always right, some people might find that off-putting.
I usually find it refreshing.
It's a What he said vs How he said it issue. Where the How he said it became a sticking point.
Just like we need RF Goggles to see where our Z-devices need a repeater, we need Hearing Augmenters for Bruce's statements. They would be tunable to set the level of Flowery your ears like.
Sadly, neither are available in the real world
I can do Flowery: however you f'ng want it?