[$] A kernel developer plays with Home Assistant: general impressions

Those of us who have spent our lives playing with computers naturally seethe appeal of deploying them though the home for both data acquisition andautomation. But many of us who have watched the evolution of thetechnology industry are increasingly unwilling to entrust criticalhousehold functions to cloud-based servers run by companies that may nothave our best interests at heart. The Apache-licensed Home Assistant project offers awelcome alternative: locally controlled automation with free software.This two-part series covers roughly a year of Home Assistant use, startingwith a set of overall observations about the project.