Re: [mh] Where next with MisterHouse

I've heard this argument before (including in MH history). I would argue 
that moving MH to a completely different language will made it harder 
for more people than it will make it easier. Heck, for the past 6 years 
there've been >=30 posts / month on the mailing list. The community 
isn't big enough to casually suggest a userbase split is a good thing. A 
userbase where the entry fee is high.

"MisterHouse is an open source home automation program. It's fun, it's 
free, and it's entirely geeky." Many of the things that used to make me 
geeky and cool, non tech people today just plug in, install and app, and 
have work.

The world is very different than the origin of MH. X10 didn't provide a 
software platform. Many people today, if they want to automate their 
home, are going to buy amazon (or google) widgets, load them on their 
phone, and call it good. There are commercial home automation packages 
that didn't exist back then. The widgets you buy come with a software 
platform. There are solid media management platforms. There's an app for 
that. Chasing a non-existent new user base for MH isn't productive. To 
your point, people aren't moving to MH because there are many other options.

MH is open source. Instead of arguing to change the entirely of MH to a 
completely different framework in a different language (making it not 
useful for years to those currently using it), why not create a separate 
project and rewrite everything that you wish? That needs to happen if 
you're switching the language anyway.

Or spend that vast amount of effort by picking out individual components 
and improving them. Start with making a rock-solid install that's easy 
to use and documentation that works cross-platform. Build a new web UI 
if that's your thing. Those things would be awesome.

Rick

On 1/4/2021 9:41 PM, Spencer Ryan wrote:
> Maybe a userbase split isn't a bad thing. I think more people are turned 
> off of the legacy aspect of MH than are drawn to it. How many new users 
> move to the platform vs the X10 users who have been here 20 years? Yes, 
> customizations would have to be redone, but at some point you have to 
> acknowledge that it will be easier for most people in 
> Python/.NET/Whatever than in a language that is dead for all useful 
> purposes.


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