RE: Home Automation Software

["Julian Stuhler" <julian.stuhler@xxxxxxx>]

Graham,
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Thanks for starting the new thread - an excellent idea.
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I have some views/experiences to add to the Autom8it entry. I was going
to post these to the original thread, but it was closed before I got a
chance.=20
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In the interests of balance, I should firstly point out that I am one of
the beta testers for A8 ;-)=20
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Here goes:
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1. Product maturity. Currently, A8 is a much less mature product than
alternatives such as HomeSeer. This is inevitable given the amount of
time the products have existed, and anyone expecting A8 to be as
functionally rich as something like HomeSeer right now is going to be
disappointed. However, having used HomeSeer for a few weeks on trial and
running all of my HA on A8 for a few months, A8 already performs 95% of
everything I need it to do right now. I accept that my needs are
probably less sophisticated that those that have been into HA for longer
- if that's the case and you need the extra function right now then for
you pay the extra money and get HomeSeer or an equivalent.
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2. Future potential. A8 has been designed from the ground up to be very
easily extensible via the plug-in concept, and there is huge potential
for really cool extra function to be added to the product with
relatively little effort. Many of these are already being developed by
Jim, but some are also being developed by third parties. As more and
more plug-ins become available, I believe that A8 will get closer and
closer to HomeSeer in functionality.
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3. Responsiveness. The speed with which YellowMelon Software is able to
respond to requirements and enhance the product has been amazing. One of
the big advantages of doing business with smaller, more local operations
is that they tend to be light on their feet and able to respond quickly
to customer requirements. Software development is no different and IMO
this is a significant advantage of A8 over bigger, more established
alternatives.
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4. Price. the freeware v commercial argument has already been played out
many times, so I'll leave that one. I know that Jim agonised for some
time about the pricing and I think he got it about right. A8 is
significantly cheaper than other commercial products such as HomeSeer,
but can currently do less. With a few more plug-ins I believe that the
functionality will be a lot closer to HomeSeer and that Gold licence at
=A360 starts to look like a real bargain. Pay your money and take your
choice!
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5. User Interface. I know that this is a very subjective issue, but one
of the things that put me off HomeSeer was the UI. I have found the A8
UI to be much cleaner and less cluttered - especially useful for people
that are relatively unfamiliar with HA or PCs in general.
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Hope this is of some use.
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regards,
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Julian

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-----Original Message-----
From: Graham Howe [mailto:graham@xxxxxxx]=20
Sent: 30 April 2003 13:15
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Home Automation Software


There has been some discussion recently about pros and cons of=20
software available in the Home Automation market. It strikes me that=20
this is a pretty fundamental discussion for both newcomers and old=20
hands in HA, so I am starting this thread to group together facts and=20
experiences, which could then be put on to a web page for others to=20
refer to.





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