A practical, good-looking and easy-to-use recipe for home automation with free/libre software and DIY hardware

• Do you aspire to automate parts of your home (or workplace) using free/libre software?
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• Are you confused about which hardware to use and if any of the off-the-shelf hardware available in India can be liberated to run free software?
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• Do you want to do it by yourself and have control over the hardware + software + services and earn unprecedented "bragging rights"?

I aim layout a roadmap for building a liberated home - free of proprietary software. I will talk about a wide variety of devices readily available in India and which can be hacked to run free/libre software using simple methods. At the same time, I will optimise for practicality (is it going to be easy to integrate such a device into an existing home?), good looks (it shouldn't look ugly, it shouldn't be an eyesore and no dangling wires or loose connections either) and ease-of-use (something you can do yourself - either because you might already have the skills or might able to acquire them quickly).

The roadmap will including recipes to control lighting and plugs, monitor power and water consumption, integrate sensors, build a locally-hosted, free software voice assistant, a "video doorbell" and more. I will also highlight some companies that ship hardware pre-loaded with free software or hardware that is possible to liberate easily.