When I was on ST, I rarely did ANYTHING with my hub. Once I set up my lock and half a dozen bulbs I was done. Moved to Hubitat, and I seem to be in a never-ending cycle of tinkering and expanding.
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I realized the other day that I was subscribed to several home automation channels on YouTube from my ST days which was over 2 years now. Most recent videos were at least 6 months ago and just basically a remake of old content.
Outside of Samsung appliances and electronics, who is keeping the platform alive!?
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It is the ST community, catching up with Edge drivers for hundreds of devices at incredible speed... I have the feeling that 90% of the Edge drivers are now made by ST community developers, not by Samsung.
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I'm not entirely clear on what an edge driver is.
The Edge drivers (written in Lua language) are replacing the Groovy language DTH (device handlers) that were used in SmartThings until now.
They are executed always locally on the ST hub.
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Geez, shouldn't the conversation in that group be about finding solutions, not protecting or promoting some non-existent single-solution fiefdom? I expect most of us are already using some combination of the available tools, whether it's Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, SharpTools, node.js servers, or whatever. What are they afraid of?
Perhaps pointing out that they could continue to run webCoRE with SmartThings with a Hubitat hub and an app like HubiThings Replica still would have upset them—because then they'd have to begin facing all they've been missing over here on what they misguidedly view as the "dark side." 
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I was banned from that group looong ago. When AT 'sponsored' the group, I stepped back my posting/commenting. If someone tagged me in something or directly asked a question, I would reply. But I'd often find that those posts would be deleted anyway, so I suppose "SharpTools" is a forbidden topic too. 
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Yeah, and it's too bad - I still have a ST hub for a device or two that Hubitat doesn't yet support (Schlage FE599)..
..and I have a long history with ST. I was an original kickstarter backer, I was the first ST featured community developer.
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Unfortunately, my ST hub isn't even useful as a doorstop. Mine was deprecated and I was forced to either update to a new hub or shut down. Since they STILL do not have a viable path for migration, I figured I would just get a new hub that does have a path (not perfect, but better than nothing). To the best of my knowledge, none of the Hubitat hubs have been deprecated either. They may be old and eventually die. But, if they still work, you aren't forced to replace them.
Between their hubs, and the features that they are removing from their phones, and the removal of Tizen from their watches, I swear it is like they are intentionally trying to put themselves out of business. I know they are pushing themselves right out of my household.
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I will also say that Hubitat doesn't force you to upgrade platforms. It's entirely up to the user. And if something goes wrong, you can always roll back. ST doesn't give you that option.
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Most cloud service based products are going to be this way, not specific to Samsung. Amazon just shut down all the Cloud Cams, Arlo is shutting down a line of their cameras. Insteon went offline without notice. The list goes on and on.
Was your hub a V1 ? The V2 came out in 2015...
In Samsung's defense, the V2 and V3 ST hubs were not shutdown and they built a migration path for the possibility of most of the Groovy based DTH's to be supported under the new environment. Its been rocky and there are caveats but they didn't just kill them all off.
I actually have that line. You will still be allowed to use them, albeit with limited capability and no updates. I left them long before I left Samsung for similar customer service reasons. However, they apparently still have my cameras in their database listing as they sent me an e-mail.
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Same here. When ST first started down this path I also had a V1 hub and saw the writing on the wall. I jumped ship at the beginning of 2020 when they started making changes to the ST platform and some of my apps quit working. My only regret is that I didn't jump to HE a lot sooner.
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Except that SmartThings seems to have some problem. People are having performance problems when they have more than 20 Edge drivers installed. It's become a common question being asked of people reporting problems.
Yeah read through the forums.. sounds like some serious pain but they are working it out. ST is lucky to have the great community they still do.
My take is if you take the plunge and convert everything (and ignore/put aside the not working bits) you should be okay.
I'm still confused as to how the system interacts with the ST cloud etc.. someone posted a chart but it kinda makes my head spin 
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That part right there is unacceptable.... If it worked before on the existing platform, it should 100% work on the "upgraded" platform.
Edited to add - I realize you are not defending that stance and probably meant it more like... "Yeah.... it's sorta ok as long as you ignore what doesn't work"
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% - the whole thing seems like a big mess. For folks who are stuck with a large system they just have deal with it until Samsung does something.. or you know, change to HE and local freedom.. 
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To sum up that chart - if the device connects directly to the hub it can be processed locally. Almost
everything else routes through the SmartThings cloud, possibly bi-directionally, and the Cloud will also send the status updates to the hub.
The center really is the Cloud, not the hub. The Hub is just a means to connect to the local devices that are not internet connected. Major new difference is the code to run those devices can run locally as Edge drivers.
I think that makes sense?
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It makes it more understandable. However, it still makes no sense. based on that diagram, you have no local control from your phone if the internet or cloud is down..... unlike a system that does make sense which would allow that local control over LAN. I would think it might be important to be able to shut down your hub properly to prevent database corruption......
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I had a V1 hub and would have had to use it as a paperweight. If I hadn’t already left ST for Hubitat and tossed it well before they bricked the V1 hubs.
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