I am a HomeLogic dealer (A Plus Electronics - www.apluselectronics.com) and I have one installed in my showroom. I have also installed a large system (retro fit) for a customer and have sold 3 other systems (prewireing soon on new construction jobs). I love this system and can't say enough about the company.

I too was leary about a Windows server based system. But after having one in my showrrom since April, I have to say that my fears have vanished.

For 1 thing: It is really an XP imbedded appliance. Essentially HomeLogic has stripped everything out of XP that is not neccessary to drive thier system and the result is a very clean registry. This is not a computer that the customer can use for anything other than HomeLogic's "OneHome" system.

But in the event a "reboot" is necessary, the dealer can reboot the system from their office (over the internet). In fact, all of the "soft changes" in HomeLogic's "Configurator" can be done over the internet w/o a truck roll.

But I believe Julie's 2nd paragraph is NOT true (maybe I'm wrong Julie but you might verify this with the folks at HomeLogic). AFAIK, only HomeLogic writes their "plug-ins" for all of the subsystem and their system is not based on an open source. However I could be wrong on this, but I know all the guys at HomeLogic and I don't ever recall them discussing opening up their code.

But the beauty of the system is that it is IP based (finally a Home Automation standard that we know will be around for a while) and the hardware is based on Win CE touchscreens (but could also be XP touchscreens) sitting on the Home Network, talking to a very reliable XP server also sitting on the Home Network.

And the real bottom line is the stuff really works. I pound on this system every day at my showroom (Ademco security; April Aire thermostats; Pansonic IP cameras; Russound CAV6 with ST2 XM tuner; MP3 serving and much more). Soon to be adding a Vantage lighting system (first got to get rid of my old Lutron HomeWorks system). It rarely hiccups and I am very picky about problematic equipement. I don't feel comfortable putting in systems in customer's homes that are prone to even slight problems. I can honestly say that I have no reservations, whatsoever, about installing this sytem in any of my customer's homes. Finally a system the we dealer's can sink out teeth into!!!


John