HS 2.0 Rick makes a statement!!
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AutomatedOutlet
Senior Member
Ah, thanks, makes sense I guess
Squintz
Senior Member
Martin,
The biggest feature is the ability to distribute the work load over multiple "Threads" and in some cases even distribute the workload over multiple PC's if needed or wanted.
Google: Multitasking
"Running several processes in rapid sequence within a single program, regardless of which logical method of multitasking is being used by the operating system. Because the user's sense of time is much slower than the processing speed of a computer, multitasking appears to be simultaneous, even though only one task at a time can use a computer processing cycle"
So basically the PC can now run more than one event at a time. So you no longer will have to wait for an even to finish before you can trigger the next event. Everything will seem to happen much faster simple because the HomeSeer Application will no longer be held up by any other action that is happening. So if you have a long script that takes 2 minutes to perform it will be divided up with other scripts. You can trigger another script at the same time without having to wait for the first one to finish.
The biggest reason i want HS 2.0 is because the Z-wave driver has been totally re-done and hs is going to have the power of the handheld remote built into the software. This should mean that if you own the HS software you won't need to buy any more new remotes because HS will be able to program and associate all of you devices. I think this is huge for the Z-wave users.
The distributed audio is nice also even tho many people may not use it.
I would say its worth the money for the upgrade. I have seen it in action at the MAHUG meeting. I may wait a day or two to actually install it but I will be purchasing it so long as the price is no more than what they first stated.
Down side IMO...
I dont like the 100% web interface idea. I like my good old GUI. I will be looking forward to a plugin the recreates that GUI.
The biggest feature is the ability to distribute the work load over multiple "Threads" and in some cases even distribute the workload over multiple PC's if needed or wanted.
Google: Multitasking
"Running several processes in rapid sequence within a single program, regardless of which logical method of multitasking is being used by the operating system. Because the user's sense of time is much slower than the processing speed of a computer, multitasking appears to be simultaneous, even though only one task at a time can use a computer processing cycle"
So basically the PC can now run more than one event at a time. So you no longer will have to wait for an even to finish before you can trigger the next event. Everything will seem to happen much faster simple because the HomeSeer Application will no longer be held up by any other action that is happening. So if you have a long script that takes 2 minutes to perform it will be divided up with other scripts. You can trigger another script at the same time without having to wait for the first one to finish.
The biggest reason i want HS 2.0 is because the Z-wave driver has been totally re-done and hs is going to have the power of the handheld remote built into the software. This should mean that if you own the HS software you won't need to buy any more new remotes because HS will be able to program and associate all of you devices. I think this is huge for the Z-wave users.
The distributed audio is nice also even tho many people may not use it.
I would say its worth the money for the upgrade. I have seen it in action at the MAHUG meeting. I may wait a day or two to actually install it but I will be purchasing it so long as the price is no more than what they first stated.
Down side IMO...
I dont like the 100% web interface idea. I like my good old GUI. I will be looking forward to a plugin the recreates that GUI.
That was my point when I mentioned the version upgrade vs a new release. I'm not seeing enough changes from the end-user perspective to justify a "new release". For the user, the additional functionality looks more like a version change (HS 1.8) than a new release. I'm sure I've forgotten some of the changes Tink mentioned (my definition of long-term memory is "anything after my next nap"), but I don't remember any super biggies.
It's the equivelant of Micro$oft releasing a 64 bit OS. There is a boatload of work behind the scenes, but from the outside there is not much difference. There are not many things that can currently use the new functionality, but the changes under the hood make room for lots of goodies in the future.
AFAIK, HS Tech has made a business decision discount the upgrade for a limited time after the 2.0 rollout. That is their right, and it's a waste of time debating the pros and cons of the decision. Also, if you look at some other programs (Quicken) that require you to upgrade on a regular basis (Quicken) but deliver very little new functionality (Quicken) that 99% of the client base would use (Quicken), at least HS is delivering something for the money, even if it is mostly under the hood.
AutomatedOutlet
Senior Member
Squintz,
Thanks for the info - very helpful!
jlehnert,
Thank you as well. As far as a business decision on the pricing, of course that's up to HS and I don't have any problem with that at all. I'm just looking at it from the perspective of the end-user and what their decision making process is going to be on whether or not to do the upgrade.
I don't think anyone is questioning whether or not the new platform is a good long-term decision.
Although I probably could have gleened some of the benefits if I spent hours on the HS board searching, Squintz was kind enough to provide me what I consider some tangible benefits of an early upgrade.
Thanks for the info - very helpful!
jlehnert,
Thank you as well. As far as a business decision on the pricing, of course that's up to HS and I don't have any problem with that at all. I'm just looking at it from the perspective of the end-user and what their decision making process is going to be on whether or not to do the upgrade.
I don't think anyone is questioning whether or not the new platform is a good long-term decision.
Although I probably could have gleened some of the benefits if I spent hours on the HS board searching, Squintz was kind enough to provide me what I consider some tangible benefits of an early upgrade.
Rupp
Senior Member
Guys,
First of all the speed at which HS2.0 executes is amazing. Couple that with the face that the multi-threading frees up that lag that is in HS 1.x and you will soon see that HS has grown up. I have several scripts that run on the hour and there are times with HS1.x that the GUI freezes and doesn't respond until all of the scritps are complete. If something was being spoke on the whole house audio system at this time the speech would be broken at times. This doesn't happen now. All scripts run as seperate executables and not all within HS like the old HS1.x.
There are things that are going to be hard to get used to. The GUI is all but gone and it's all web based. I for one never liked or used the old web based GUI for event editing. After just a bit of early testing it's not too bad though but will take some getting use to.
HSPhone is now fully intergrated into HS2.x. It still takes a licence but the app is not a seperate exe.
There are several nice new features.
First of all the speed at which HS2.0 executes is amazing. Couple that with the face that the multi-threading frees up that lag that is in HS 1.x and you will soon see that HS has grown up. I have several scripts that run on the hour and there are times with HS1.x that the GUI freezes and doesn't respond until all of the scritps are complete. If something was being spoke on the whole house audio system at this time the speech would be broken at times. This doesn't happen now. All scripts run as seperate executables and not all within HS like the old HS1.x.
There are things that are going to be hard to get used to. The GUI is all but gone and it's all web based. I for one never liked or used the old web based GUI for event editing. After just a bit of early testing it's not too bad though but will take some getting use to.
HSPhone is now fully intergrated into HS2.x. It still takes a licence but the app is not a seperate exe.
There are several nice new features.
jwilson56
Senior Member
My concern is that I have not seen a list of plugins that have been tested with HS2.0 so its hard to decide whether to upgrade or not. Will the W800, Slink-e, joystick, hsGirder and WAFNetcallerID plugins work with HS2.0 or will they need to be upgraded? If they need to be upgraded is HST going to upgrade theirs like the Slink-e as part of HS2.0? I would have to think that the timing for this introductory price would have to be long enough to settle all these questions and concerns.
I would like to see a trial upgrade version created so people could kick the tires on 2.0 to see if they really want to upgrade or if there are problems that will arise that can't be solved easily.
John
I would like to see a trial upgrade version created so people could kick the tires on 2.0 to see if they really want to upgrade or if there are problems that will arise that can't be solved easily.
John
judging by the instructions, it's pretty easy to upgrade, and it looks like you still can run 1.7 while 2.0 has been installed, so you should be able to revert back to 1.7 without too much trouble, but I can't confirm that while at work. I also suggest you take a backup, so you can revert back, just in case ...
Rupp
Senior Member
Guys,
I'm sloooooooooooooly moving over script by script and event by event. This is still very early beta code so I didn't take the whole wad and bring it in. I want to buy a new PC to load HS 2.0 on so I can continue to have my "golden 1.7" install. The first betas could be run on the same machine but the next beta will prevent this for object instantiation testing. I have only had a small amount of testing time since I'm testing it on my laptop. I need to get another PC so I can get deeper into what's new.
The good news is it appears they are going to leave the introductory pricing open for 3 months after the first release and that's not a beta release. So it appears the upgrade time frame isn't going to be that much of a drop dead date. There are probably going to be a lot of older plugins that the authors are not going to convert over to the new HS 2.0 so many may want to stay on the 1.7 platform.
I'm sloooooooooooooly moving over script by script and event by event. This is still very early beta code so I didn't take the whole wad and bring it in. I want to buy a new PC to load HS 2.0 on so I can continue to have my "golden 1.7" install. The first betas could be run on the same machine but the next beta will prevent this for object instantiation testing. I have only had a small amount of testing time since I'm testing it on my laptop. I need to get another PC so I can get deeper into what's new.
The good news is it appears they are going to leave the introductory pricing open for 3 months after the first release and that's not a beta release. So it appears the upgrade time frame isn't going to be that much of a drop dead date. There are probably going to be a lot of older plugins that the authors are not going to convert over to the new HS 2.0 so many may want to stay on the 1.7 platform.
Krumpy had a suggestion to have all the beta testers and owners of the plugin to post their testing results on the HS beta tester forum. That way we all aren't installing stuff that is known to cause havoc. I don't mind testing stuff that is unknown or has documented issues, but it's just a waste of time to install something that will lock the works up.
