I have a specific use case for home automation, so I installed Home Assistant Green (their appliance version). This is the recommended path for new installations. I have the Silicon Labs dual protocol radio (Zigbee and Matter). Right now I'm only using the Zigbee kit until Matter and Threads matures (if ever). My data stays local and everything runs from a browser I check on stuff every other day, but really I could let it go for a couple of weeks if needed. Good to go. If you're considering Home Assistant, knowing YAML is very helpful.

"We're looking for the outsized impact, which tends to be big projects with few maintainers that we all rely on," Daigle said. Big == Important

There is a very interesting article about the scale of distances in space. Google "If the sun were the size of a grain of sand." Facinating read.

Although this survey has a much smaller population, the results are very similar. See the 2005 survey here: http://www.bsdcertification.or... Figure 2.1 on page 9. Full disclosure: I created and ran the survey and was the co-author of the report.