308: Why 2 Million People Ditched Alexa & Google for This - Me Included

Most smart homes hand your house to Big Tech. Home Assistant is proof they don't have to.

Matt and Sean sit down with Paulus Schoutsen, the software engineer who started Home Assistant, the largest open-source smart home platform in the world, now running in over 2 million homes. It runs locally, it keeps your data inside your house, and it doesn't stop working the day a company decides to shut off its servers. We get into why Paulus gave the whole project away to a nonprofit instead of selling it, how the energy dashboard turns your solar and battery into something genuinely useful, and whether a normal person can actually run this or if it's still a power-user thing. So is the open, local smart home finally good enough to replace Alexa and Google? Or is handing your house to Big Tech still the path of least resistance?

Chapters:

00:00: Intro
01:20: Paulus Schoutsen
52:08: Feedback - Updates
56:20: Feedback - What Happens with the Chlorine?
59:24: Feedback - Climate Change
01:01:00: Feedback - Poutine

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPEtYL9F0Vk

Mentioned in this episode:

Home Assistant (free, open source): https://www.home-assistant.io/

Nabu Casa / Home Assistant Cloud (~$80/yr, funds the mission): https://www.nabucasa.com/

Open Home Foundation: https://www.openhomefoundation.org/

Support the show directly: https://stilltbd.fm/join/

Audio version of the podcast: https://stilltbd.fm

YouTube version of the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@stilltbd

YouTube membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA/join

Get in touch: https://stilltbd.fm/contact/

Mastodon - https://mastodon.social/@mattferrell

Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/mattferrell.bsky.social

Undecided with Matt Ferrell: https://www.youtube.com/@undecidedtechnology

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(311)

310: Is a Smart Panel Worth It? With Reynolds Holmes

A smart panel adds a few thousand dollars to an already expensive project, so Matt asks the awkward question straight out. Reynolds Holmes, VP of Product at SPAN, answers with a test: will you add an ...

12 Elo 58min

309: Is Perovskite Solar Finally Here? Joel Jean - Swift Solar Interview

Perovskite solar has promised a revolution for over a decade, so is it finally real? Matt and Sean talk with Joel Jean, co-founder and CEO of Swift Solar, the US startup spun out of MIT and Stanford. ...

22 Heinä 46min

307: From Super Soakers to Heat Engines with Dr. Lonnie Johnson

The inventor of the Super Soaker, Dr. Lonnie Johnson, joins Matt to talk about his most ambitious project yet: the JTEC, a heat engine with no moving parts that converts low-grade waste heat straight ...

24 Kesä 44min

306: Is This Finally a Real Solid State Battery? With Jorge Diaz Scheider

Matt sat down with Jorge Diaz Schneider, CEO of Ion Storage Systems, to talk about their anode-less, ceramic-based solid-state battery that doesn't swell or need pressure to work. We get into why they...

10 Kesä 40min

305: Having a Think with Dave Borlace

Matt and Sean talk to Dave Borlace from the YouTube channel, Just Have a Think, to discuss the current state of the renewable energy transition in the UK and the US.Dave’s YouTube channel: https://www...

27 Touko 1h 19min

304: JerryRigged Wheelchairs and More with Zack Nelson

Matt and Sean talk to Zack Nelson of JerryRiggedEverything about building a new wheelchair manufacturing business, solar DIY, and the history and future of his Youtube channel.Chapters:00:00 - Intro02...

13 Touko 44min

303: Karl Rábago and the Internet of Electricity

Matt and Sean talk to Karl Rábago about the internetification of the electrical grid, and what it means for the future of owning solar panels and energy. 00:00 - Intro11:26 - Karl Rábago InterviewSupp...

29 Huhti 54min