[Colchester] continued ESP8266 and MQTT - Windows 10 or Linux

[Wayland Sothcott]

Well we have at least two people on this list who have a head start on 
you for home automation. I'd be happy to assist.

On 01/09/2019 20:18, Martyn via Colchester wrote:
> I'm an electrician by trade and employ several electricians as sub 
> contractors.
> Home automation is definitely an area I am keen to pursue but getting 
> a foothold or reliable information is proving difficult to almost 
> impossible without forking out ££££'s to some so called training company.
>
>
> On 01/09/2019 20:08, Wayland Sothcott via Colchester wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 01/09/2019 19:45, Martyn via Colchester wrote:
>>> Your plans going forward sound interesting and as much as I love 
>>> playing with Linux my main OS has been W10 due to needing (a stable) 
>>> Quickbooks for the business.
>>  Martyn,
>>
>> There are a lot of frustrations when using Linux for business 
>> depending on the business.
>> In some businesses, anything Internet based all works perfectly in 
>> Linux.
>> However the legacy of needing Windows based programs causes problems. 
>> I found WINE handles most things written for Windows except those 
>> which directly interact with hardware like USB key burners. Most of 
>> MS Office works fine in Linux WINE. MS Access is impossible to get to 
>> work in Linux so I run Windows 7 inside a VirtualBox in Linux and 
>> share the files over the network.
>>
>> I'm very happy in Linux having forced myself for a year. However 
>> moving customers to Linux is much more challenging. Some of the 
>> Windows software they use does not even work properly in Windows like 
>> the accounts package SAGE.
>>
>> Windows 10 is so terrible it would be better to give up all Windows 
>> programs than actually have it on a computer. Fortunately Windows 7 
>> still works as does Windows XP.
>>
>> I don't know what your new area of business is but I would think that 
>> home automation might be very popular. A lot of the current systems 
>> are terrible in that to turn a light on it has to connect to 'The 
>> Cloud' and ask it to put the light on for you. None of this is 
>> necessary but it does involve having an actual 'Cloud' at home. 
>> That's were we come in.
>>
>> Wayland.
>>
>