Very much a loaded proposition… And one I’m sure the power’s that be would want us to treat with due respect… So tread carefully…
So putting aside any derogatory views of competitors, let’s have a healthy and constructive conversation about what matters when considering a platform…
What has driven you to change?
I forgot to add my own thoughts…
Personally, I came here to keep up with the cool kids 
While I may make light of that, I feel like there is a method to that … approach. I don’t completely disown my previous platform choices and will continue to use them as I start to introduce CORE.
For me, the UX when taking on a new platform is likely / should be the biggest difference. That assessment should include both the experience of new and existing home automation users.
Discuss…
Can’t call it a switch yet since I don’t have a CORE. However what brought me to the beta is the flexibility that will be offered when compared to other hubs. Also the fact that Oh-La LABS has a lot of experience building drivers for a lot of popular devices only gives me hope that CORE can be successful.
Oh, and let’s not forget having the power of Node-Red out of the box.
Pretty simple for me… my first foray into home automation was with the “best” in the field. I was (and am) dismayed by the slapdash software construction and lack of reliability. One leads directly to the other, as I’m sure we’ve all seen many times over the years from any number of products. CORE will hopefully go a different route (time will tell). I’m really just looking for something that works reliably over long timescales, and doesn’t need the cloud to operate. My wife has very little patience for imperfect behavior; automations that don’t work are a bad thing for me.
I’ve said this before, and I’m not ignoring your non-negativity admonition above, but people. The people who are here.
Reliability and imagination are the cherries on top of the sundae.
Concur with @0AB9N … just philosophically I want to engage with bridge-builders, not wall-builders. The other place started one way (and even today are so close, if they would just choose it) but seem to have drifted into the other way’s territory.
CORE seems very flexibility-focused.
This is the way.
Awh … Guys … I just don’t know what to say. We appreciate you all. I appreciate you. So nice to hear your comments. It constantly reminds me why we’ve put almost 3 years into this venture. This is why we won’t give up. Lots of great things to come.
@martybird I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The openness of the CORE team and their persistence in building a better, more flexible, yet still easy to use solution for automation, despite the setbacks, tells me just how great the community they’re building is.
Like @napalmcsr , I also like to tinker or more like breaking thing. Wife definitely would agreed on the breaking.
Here’s my chance to play with new toys with a bunch of great people.
Well said.
What drove me to change? I was bored. I started with Smartthings and it was my gateway drug. But I wanted more. So, I found Hubitat. And that was even better. Like Bruce told me personally (yes, I’ve talked to him) “Why does something need to travel all the way to the cloud and back just to turn on a light 5 feet away from you? Seemed a bit inefficient.” I got his point and respected his ideas. And I continued to tinker and make great friends in the community. I was an active contributor and supporter. Then, I got stressed out about my locks and the list of incompatible “things” grew. They gave up on them. They quit them and wrote them off as incompatible. And then it felt like when something wouldn’t work, it wasn’t going to be a priority, and since I wasn’t a programmer by trade or by tinkering, and I didn’t have the experience to write solutions to my problems, I began to stray. Then I met the group of people that are now known as Oh-LaLABS. They seemed to care about all users. Even the ones that love home automation but “don’t know jack”. They were excited about tinkering and creating solutions to fill in the gaps we were finding. New solutions and fixes for old. Naturally, I signed on with them before they finished asking. Even when I didn’t really understand why they were interested in little ol’ me. Would I still have a Hubitat? Damn right I would. There was some good shit there. It’s unfortunate that the two that I own are bricks. But, in the end, I was forced to make a choice that I wouldn’t have made otherwise. Am I happy with my new way of home automation? Yes. I’ve never wanted to be more immersed in something than I have been with CORE. I love being forward thinking and having my ideas heard. I’m happy that you all are here. I’m excited that we will be sharing this adventure with you soon. I can’t wait to experience the buzz that having a CORE will create. I can’t wait for you to help us make this a customizable solution that will work for you. Should you switch? Probably not entirely. Rather, you should integrate.
I started with smartthing back when SmartThings was a small group working with the community, before Samsung was overly involved. I switched to using hubitat when I saw the writing on the wall that SmartThings was going to be a cloud forest environment and I have 0 uses for automations that don’t run if the internet goes out. Luckily migrating my stuff to hubitat early on was easy. I have a really early hubitat unit and have been there almost from the start. I have 2 (i used to run my lights on a dedicated hub, switching to better lights I don’t have to do that anymore as they must be better zigbee repeater). I heard about core and have been following since there aren’t many of these devices on the market as the “market” is extremely limited. We kid ourselves if we think we are the average consumer. I like to break things so new hardware is usually interesting to me. So we will see how it goes. I never got into any drama with hubitat, I still very much enjoy it and it’s been absolutely rock solid (until they revamped rule machine and broke everything). So I guess everything works except rules. Waiting for an upcoming fix for an issue I’m having. So I’m not here because I hate SmartThings or hubitat, I think they are great for certain people, SmartThings for the consumer who doesn’t know what they want and hubitat for more advanced. I’m here because I like automation and breaking things and testing new things. I’ll most likely use the core to offload the rules from my hubitat for starters, and get familiar with node red and do some automation speed tests. Looking forward to this journey.
I just like to play shit!
I also can’t stand default dashboards in habitat, it’s such a painful experience. Hubitat does a lot of cool things, but one thing that drives me crazy is how slow the UI is, I would gladly pay a little more for some upgraded horsepower and a better user experience.
“Surround yourself with those that make you successful.”
Welcome to our community. No banning, no bullying, no disrespect here.
For those who are interested in being a part of beta, there are still a few units left.
Just in case anyone was wondering.
@LibraSun go pick up a beta Core… They’re phenomenally good. Far, FAR superior to the product made by those “others.”
Come to the dark… I mean CORE side.
I’m a techie junkie. Could not loose the opportunity to tinker even more. I’ve learned a lot since I finally got my hands on my Core. Thanks everyone here.