Big Tech ruined the cloud, so we're renaming ours
Big Tech ruined the cloud, so we’re renaming ours
科技巨头毁了“云”的概念，所以我们决定为我们的服务更名
From ever-increasing subscription prices to outages and data harvesting: we don’t like what the cloud has come to represent. So we’re redefining what an online service should be: private, optional, and free from lock-in or walled gardens. That’s why today Nabu Casa is renaming Home Assistant Cloud to more accurately describe what the service actually does, and to better reflect our values. Allow us to introduce: Home Assistant Link. 从不断上涨的订阅价格到服务中断和数据搜集，我们不喜欢“云”如今所代表的含义。因此，我们正在重新定义在线服务应有的样子：私密、可选，且没有锁定或围墙花园。正因如此，Nabu Casa 今天将 Home Assistant Cloud 更名，以更准确地描述该服务的实际功能，并更好地体现我们的价值观。请允许我们隆重介绍：Home Assistant Link。
I’m Carl, Vice President of Commercial at Nabu Casa. You probably know us as the folks making all that sleek, highly optimized Home Assistant hardware. Beyond hardware, we also manage and run Home Assistant Link, and as one of the Open Home Foundation’s commercial partners, we’re here to help fund all their amazing work. We feel pretty passionately about the word “cloud,” and we’d love to explain how the old name never fit, and why Link finally does. 我是 Carl，Nabu Casa 的商业副总裁。你们可能知道我们是那些制造精美、高度优化的 Home Assistant 硬件的人。除了硬件，我们还管理和运营 Home Assistant Link。作为 Open Home Foundation 的商业合作伙伴之一，我们致力于资助他们所有出色的工作。我们对“云”这个词有着强烈的看法，我们很乐意解释为什么旧名称一直不合适，以及为什么 Link 这个名字终于名副其实。
Created for the community
为社区而生
Home Assistant began with a group of core developers working nights and weekends alongside their regular jobs to create the platform – a good recipe for burnout, and one that has ended plenty of similar open source projects. So in 2018, we founded Nabu Casa and created Home Assistant Cloud to make sure that didn’t happen. Home Assistant Cloud set out to make Home Assistant easier for more people to use, starting with a problem many of you had: reaching your Home Assistant when you’re not at home, without having to spend a weekend on it. Home Assistant 最初是由一群核心开发者在完成日常工作之余，利用夜晚和周末时间创建的——这很容易导致精疲力竭，也曾让许多类似的开源项目走向终结。因此，我们在 2018 年成立了 Nabu Casa 并创建了 Home Assistant Cloud，以确保这种情况不会发生。Home Assistant Cloud 的初衷是让更多人能轻松使用 Home Assistant，首先解决的是许多用户面临的问题：在不在家时访问你的 Home Assistant，而无需为此耗费整个周末。
It was also built to make Home Assistant’s development sustainable. The intent was never to just ask for donations, but to build an optional service that benefited the community and funded the work at the same time. The majority of profits from subscriptions now fund the Open Home Foundation. That money supports everyone working on Home Assistant – from salaried staff to volunteers – keeping the project sustainable. That shift took Home Assistant from a passion project to one that could invest back into its community, and one that could stick around for the long haul. 它也是为了使 Home Assistant 的开发可持续而构建的。我们的初衷从来不是单纯地寻求捐款，而是建立一项可选服务，既能造福社区，又能为开发工作提供资金。现在，订阅收入的大部分利润都用于资助 Open Home Foundation。这笔资金支持着所有为 Home Assistant 工作的人——从受薪员工到志愿者——从而保持项目的可持续性。这一转变使 Home Assistant 从一个纯粹的兴趣项目，变成了一个能够回馈社区并能长期存在下去的项目。
A breath of fresh air
一股清新的空气
We had a service that we and the community loved, but the name just didn’t feel right. For example, there were times when Paulus, founder of Home Assistant and President of the Open Home Foundation, was on stage saying “don’t buy products that require the cloud to work,” then in the next breath having to explain how Home Assistant Cloud is different, despite the name. That created unnecessary friction. It also caused confusion, since some new users thought (and continue to think) Home Assistant Cloud is a way to run Home Assistant in the cloud. This has never been the case, because we believe Home Assistant should always be run locally, in your home. 我们拥有一项深受我们和社区喜爱的服务，但名字却总让人感觉不对劲。例如，Home Assistant 创始人兼 Open Home Foundation 主席 Paulus 有时会在台上说“不要购买必须依赖云端才能工作的智能产品”，紧接着却不得不解释为什么 Home Assistant Cloud 与众不同（尽管名字里带有“云”）。这造成了不必要的矛盾。它也引起了困惑，因为一些新用户认为（并且现在仍认为）Home Assistant Cloud 是一种在云端运行 Home Assistant 的方式。事实并非如此，因为我们始终坚信 Home Assistant 应该在你的家中本地运行。
Big Tech has given the cloud a bad name, and while Link does run online, it is very different from other cloud-powered smart home services: 科技巨头让“云”的名声变差了。虽然 Link 确实是在线运行的，但它与其他基于云的智能家居服务有着本质区别：
| Home Assistant Link | A Big Tech cloud |
|---|---|
| Optional: your smart home will still work without it, lights and all. | Required: all or most features won’t work without it. |
| No lock-in: you can use this service or someone else’s, and you’ll never be stuck. | A walled garden: you’ll be locked into that one service, and all its outages or price increases. |
| Your data’s private: your data is yours, and will always stay that way. | Your data’s monetized: you’re the product, and your data is used for ads, AI training, and sometimes sold to third parties. |
| Funds a nonprofit: Nabu Casa contributes the majority of profits from subscriptions to the Open Home Foundation. | Funds investors first: profits flow to shareholders, debt repayment, and a bunch of other stuff first. |
| Home Assistant Link | 科技巨头的云服务 |
|---|---|
| 可选： 没有它，你的智能家居（包括灯光等）依然能正常工作。 | 强制： 没有它，所有或大部分功能都无法使用。 |
| 无锁定： 你可以使用此服务或他人的服务，永远不会被困住。 | 围墙花园： 你会被锁定在单一服务中，并受其服务中断或涨价的影响。 |
| 数据私密： 数据属于你，且永远保持私密。 | 数据变现： 你就是产品，你的数据被用于广告、AI 训练，有时甚至被卖给第三方。 |
| 资助非营利组织： Nabu Casa 将订阅利润的大部分贡献给 Open Home Foundation。 | 优先资助投资者： 利润首先流向股东、偿还债务等，开发者的资金往往是事后考虑。 |
Your subscriptions help sustain Home Assistant, but we’ve been clear from the beginning that you do not need Link to use the platform. We hate what Big Tech has done to smart devices, turning them into paperweights when they drop support. Thermostats that can’t be scheduled or cameras that can’t detect motion, giving the smart home a bad reputation and making a mountain of e-waste. By not using Link, you’ll miss out on some extras, but that’s all they are: extras. And if you do use Link but have to unsubscribe, your smart home will keep working. 你的订阅有助于维持 Home Assistant 的运营，但我们从一开始就明确表示，你不需要 Link 也能使用该平台。我们痛恨科技巨头对智能设备所做的一切——当他们停止支持时，设备就变成了废铁。无法设置日程的恒温器或无法检测运动的摄像头，让智能家居名声扫地，并制造了堆积如山的电子垃圾。不使用 Link，你只会错过一些附加功能，但它们仅仅是附加功能。即使你使用了 Link 但后来取消订阅，你的智能家居依然会正常工作。
Big Tech treats your data as a commodity and a tool for mass surveillance: sold to advertisers, used to train AI, and dealt to third parties for the best price. We think this is morally bankrupt. That’s why when you use Home Assistant Link, your data is encrypted, and only you have the key. Neither Nabu Casa nor the Open Home Foundation want your data, and we work hard to never have an opportunity to see it. This is what tech serving people looks like: data that’s yours, and a smart home that answers to you – not corporate shareholders. 科技巨头将你的数据视为商品和大规模监控的工具：卖给广告商、用于训练 AI，并以最高价交易给第三方。我们认为这在道德上是破产的。这就是为什么当你使用 Home Assistant Link 时，你的数据是加密的，只有你拥有密钥。Nabu Casa 和 Open Home Foundation 都不想要你的数据，我们努力确保自己永远没有机会看到它。这就是科技服务于人的样子：数据属于你，智能家居听命于你，而不是企业股东。
Choose your own path
选择你自己的道路
Many of you build DIY projects to customize your setup, and Home Assistant isn’t going anywhere on that front. But for those who’d like a simpler approach, Link makes using Home Assistant easier, opening up the local and private smart home to more people. For example, connecting to Alexa and Google Home can be complex to set up yourself, but Link allows you to… ahem… link them to Home Assistant without the hassle. Not having the time or know-how shouldn’t be a barrier to using the platform, and Link ensures it isn’t. 你们中的许多人通过 DIY 项目来定制自己的系统，Home Assistant 在这方面不会有任何改变。但对于那些想要更简单方案的人来说，Link 让使用 Home Assistant 变得更容易，将本地且私密的智能家居带给更多人。例如，连接 Alexa 和 Google Home 的自行设置过程可能很复杂，但 Link 让你能够……咳咳……轻松地将它们与 Home Assistant 连接起来。没有时间或技术知识不应成为使用该平台的障碍，而 Link 确保了这一点。
On top of things that can only be done online, there are other features that just work better with Link’s connected services. For instance, online speech-to-text tends to be faster, supports more languages, and is more reliable than self-hosted alternatives. Likewise, Link offers a way to store a backup online, so your data is always recoverable while remaining private. Plus, if you run into trouble with a feature, we have real humans you can contact to help you out. You heard that right. A real person. 除了那些只能在线完成的任务外，还有其他功能在 Link 的连接服务下表现更好。例如，在线语音转文字通常比自托管方案更快、支持更多语言且更可靠。同样，Link 提供了一种在线存储备份的方法，因此你的数据在保持私密的同时始终可恢复。此外，如果你在使用功能时遇到困难，我们有真人客服可以联系并为你提供帮助。你没听错，是真人。