If I am not mistaken the tradeoff is losing add-ons but being able to install other services.
So… what is your experience? Are add-ons useful/common for your use case?
HA OS is the way to go.
You don’t want to have to think about it. HA OS just works. You set it up and let it run.
There’s no sense in trying to kerfuffle other things into it. You don’t want to do too much on the Pi anyway because it’ll lower the responsiveness of Home Assistant slightly. If you want a server that does things, buy a separate NAS and run it alongside HA OS.
I run my own a VM.
I was sceptical about running in a OS that I can’t run my normal updates and automations on but HA OS has been rock solid and easy. Plus you get a few more features
You can go supervised! You still have most of the operating system available to your needs and you can still use add-ons. I use it for years and it works like a charm
I’ve run both, and the OS version is much more stable and easier to keep running. Whether you use an rpi or a VM, use the dedicated OS and save yourself the heartache of trying to get your hardware working with docker.
I used a ton of AddOns, really practical because they also embed themselves easily into the rest of Home Assistant. I would go for the HA OS. But I also do wish there was a AddOn to install random docker images.
