Do you want normal bulbs? Or do you want RGB bulbs? If you’re sticking to normal bulbs, they’re cheap and you are likely going to be better off with smart switches. But it does require some hardware spend.

If they are regular bulbs, I’d go with smart switches instead.

And people like to forget the artist is the first one screwed out of their work when the corporations get involved.

What would you advise i do? what did you do when starting out?

Bought a VPN.

Anna’s doesn’t have everything. That’s why I’d rather break the DRM of what I have.

Yeah, I have that and it was great. However, after they disabled the ability to download, Amazon introduced a new file type, .kfx instead of .amz or whatever. I haven’t got DeDRM to work on those at all, and it looks like you need Windows with some tools to break it.

You wouldn’t be able to play official tournaments or at most hobby shops. Hobby shops are where most people play now.

It’s basically live streaming like if you had YoutubeTV.

IPTV from Z2U. I went with a Trex provider.

What are you afraid she is going to have to learn? Where the apps are? You have to do that with a new Windows install. I find people vastly overestimate the complexity of Linux. The UIs have VASTLY improved. I go to the terminal when I want to, not because I’ve been forced there. Thanks to Steam and their Proton layer, gaming hasn’t been an issue. I think there are too many Linux users out there worried they’ll lose their wizard status if everyone finds out how much easier Linux is vs how it used to be. Or how most perceive it to be.

I’m a Windows Server admin by trade and have been daily driving Linux at home for almost two years now. I am VERY familiar with the Windows UI, and yes more technical than the average person. Linux on the desktop has been very easy. More people should be giving it a shot as Microsoft makes us jump through hoops to do what we want.

He won’t though. The Ranchers in the US wouldn’t support Trump’s Argentine rancher ploy. He’s going to take a bat to US ranchers for being disloyal.

He’s going to go after ranchers because they cried foul over his support of Argentine ranchers. He’s all about retribution. He probably has a “buddy” in the meat packing racket.

For the Home Assistant install, I would suggest a mini-PC. I run mine on an old Intel NUC. The mini-PC will give you more flexibility as you add and expand automation. I had read of Raspberry Pis bogging down under load (this was pre version 4 and 5). But even the NUC bogs down with local voice assistant use. I’m thinking of building my own, local LLM computer to offload voice. Eventually.

As far as other hardware, I’d go with the ZBT-1 (formally called SkyConnect) for Thread support, which is the new kid on the protocol block and we’re starting to see a good set of devices.

After that you’ll have to make a choice between Zigbee and Z-Wave, and buy a dongle for one of them to attach to HA to get the functionality. Both work solidly. Z-Wave devices tend to be more expensive because of the rigorous testing Z-Wave certification requires. Zigbee is cheaper, but it works on the 2.4Ghz spectrum, same as Wifi. It can lead to some interference if you still have a lot of old Wifi devices. You’ll have to look and see what kind of devices you want to run, what they cost, and decide from there. Personally, I went Z-Wave and most of my light switches are Z-Wave. it’s been solid but pricey. Hoping to see more Matter/Thread switches soon.

You’ll see a lot of Matter talk. Matter comes in two flavors, Matter/Wifi and Matter/Thread. Matter is a framework for devices to talk to automation hubs to tell them what functionality/sensors are available, Wifi/Thread is the protocol it communicates to the hub and other devices. I look for Thread devices since it is more like Zigbee/Z-Wave (Thread from what I understand is based on Zigbee). It builds an internal mesh network and keeps everything local, and it can’t communicate over the internet by itself.

If you don’t mind a bit of tinkering, I can recommend the Home Assistant Voice Preview devices. It is a voice device that talks to HA to be the voice front end. It is not nearly as polished as Google Voice or Alexa, but since I regulated Google Voice to basically be a voice front end to HA, it has been a decent replacement.

He doesn’t think of you at all.

I’ll second this. I have mine on an old NUC and it has been great.

I thought Govee2MQTT was for the non-Matter lights?

Too many MBAs and execs are too focused on the shareholder. They forget you have to take care of the customer first. It doesn’t help we have insane institutional shareholders who reward execs for punishing the customer. It’s a big reason Enshittification is such a big problem today.

Big or small, use a VPN and take them out of the equation.

Look into IPTV. Not sure what the IPTV client situation is on Mac.

I went with Tivimate on my Android box with Trex IPTV service I bought from Z2U.com.

IPTV. I use Trivimate on my Android box.