It's a great topic and the current installation wiki is definitive not beginner friendly.
Imo we should update the wiki sites instead of writing all to the blog (the blog post can be a summery that we updated install guidelines). Also the blog isn't indexed by search so it's lost after a while.

You should also explain each option a bit more:

• hass.io: is an aio hub solution with separate addons (note: these addons are not hass components)
• hassbian: based on raspbian with some modifications for easy updating hass
• VENV: most flexible installation for all platforms

for each method:

• pro/con
• efford in installation and updating process
• flexibilty
• supported platforms
  ... maybe this can be done in a table?

also venv is not "complex" to use :P

I don't like this blog post. We have done a ton of work to guide people to Hass.io. Our UI is all focussed around Hass.io and that is for a good reason: it requires 0 extra OS knowledge of people. If people are interested in the other options, they will find them.

Things like vagrant or custom Docker installations should only be found by people that know what it is. If you don't know what something is, learning Home Assistant and whatever tech you're going to use to run Home Assistant will be a bad choice.

I'd rather make an informed decision than being pushed onto something that perhaps in the end won't meet my expectations. I think this is an honest blog post, and it doesn't write hass.io down.

Many people who try hass.io don't understand its limitations, so stating those up front will cater for a better user experience in the long run.

Many people who try hass.io don't understand its limitations,

As I said above. So we should update/ improve our docs and don't write a blog post

Why not both?

I hope that doing both won't hurt the SEO of our getting started page.

I'm leaning more to not publishing this blog post. I think that it will only confuse our users. This is fine on a third party blog but we should be clear about our message.

@balloob
IMO our users are already confused hence the need for this post (regardless of if it should be a wiki or blog).

Not everyone's needs are the same and Hass.io is still not ready for the users with 0 knowledge as they still need to ssh in and modify configuration.yaml. SSH is a jump for some people, 0 knowledge would be when we can configure the whole application from the UI and never need commandline (with caveats for advanced/experimental use). My wife for example could not install and configure Hass.io without a bit of handholding.

I was in a meeting yesterday in work where very technical people told me how they struggled with YAML (in the context of Ansible). I was shocked as while I hold little love for YAML I certainly wouldn't class it as particularly difficult. Yes part of that is their learning and I'm sure they figured it out quickly, I mention it as I think it is a good example of how our own knowledge can blind us to others difficulty as to us it is easy.

I would see this post as an addendum to the Getting Started page or perhaps some of this could drive how we direct people between Hass.io & VirtualEnv by asking a question and then giving them the most appropriate install method.

I was hoping that this post / wiki entry would actually clarify our message and provide more confidence to users that they are infact choosing the most suitable installation method.

I'm happy to defer to the collective here, however I hate typing so I honestly wouldn't have bothered doing this if I didn't think there was a need for it in some form.

@c727

also venv is not "complex" to use :P

For you perhaps not, for someone whose prior experience of Python is a large snake not so simple :). It confused me the 1st time I encountered them (which was actually because of HA) but now I love them.

Following a long back and fore on Discord, here's my thoughts:

1. The blog post feels a bit emotional, rather than calling out the cases for which each of the main 3 install options (Hass.io, Hassbian, Virtual Environment) are most suited to (not saying that none of us have an emotional reaction to the choices, just saying that it's not helpful for those who're new to Home Assistant)
2. Any guides to picking choices should be aimed at those fresh to HA, and provide them with a limited set of primary choices, with a pointer to the list of other options, rather than calling those other options out. Some inexperienced folks will otherwise inevitably pick the one with most opportunity for confusion and frustration, then blame Home Assistant for being too hard. I think this (overall) would achieve that - with some changes to remove the emotive phrases, remove the Docker and Vagrant sections, and provide more detail on the advantages/disadvantages (again, keeping them to the facts).
3. The "no fluff" summary to me pretty much nails it on the head ;)

I do think something like this is needed - it's not like we're short of questions about whether to use Hass.io/Hassbian/other. I think that full list also needs a summary of why you might not use a platform (thinking particularly of Windows here), rather than hiding that away as a footnote on the platform page.

Closing PR as I think the Discussion has run it's course and this post is not the correct format going forward