I've looked at three alternatives to Premise. I'll put down the what, the whys and why nots - feel free to provide some comments.
Number 1 criteria is I MUST be able to work with it myself; Number 2 is it must provide control via IP, RS-232, ZWave (ZigBee optional); Number 3 is I must be able to expand the system via purchase from distributors. Number 4 - no hard sell from a dealer.
1) Savant - couldn't find anything compelling on their website. Could buy the hub from Best Buy, but didn't appear to be much more beyond that. It appears to support some of the protocols, but requires a dealer visit.
2) Control4 - Fits the majority of the criteria. Has support from the vendors whose products I need to control. (pool, a/c, security, much, much more, etc), Dealer will sell me the HW, but insists they do the install and programming. (despite telling them I will pay for my own travel for training in Utah). Sadly, some dealers wouldn't move beyond the conversation of 'the homeowner/end user' doing anything with it other than using the display(s). One potential dealer I'm still working with - they support California and Hawaii. But working it myself may still be an issue. Can only buy C4 HW from C4. It's unlikely I can become a dealer.
3) RTI - Meets all of my criteria, but a little concerned on the ability to do much beyond the 'out of the box' programming, albeit I've only spent a couple of weeks going thru the training. Available via distribution; my distributor got me signed up and access to the training; RTI has interfaces (drivers) with the vendors I need. A thing that I would like, (that C4 has) is an HDMI output. It appears only their top of the line processor supports HDMI for On-Screen Display. I think its a bit of an oversight on RTI, but maybe they have some future plans. Media control will require the purchase of some media streamer, but that's less of a concern.
So I'll probably end up with an RTI HW interface coupled with a Premise backend so I can get immediate support for the systems I need while I continue to work with my beloved Premise mini-browser...