Hey all, after my first post and efforts I have now a better perception of the IoT world.
Being my first test using a notebook I kindly ask some advice and some answer to my questions.
I am using now a notebook and a couple of nodeMCU as well old ESP8266.
I am controlling from an android device and I found very efficent the OH Cloud Connector.
Now my goal is to have a small IoT network with not so many sensor/actuators. Let’s say 4/5 switches and some sensors.
My understanding is that OH MUST be running “somewhere”, therefore my notebook MUST be always powered on. More over every sensor/actuators has to be wifi capable.
The alternate solution instead using a notebokk is the Raspberry.
Am I correct?
Is there any other alternative to Raspberry?
Is it worth to use a Raspberry for such a small IoT net?
Thank you for your attention.
Hi
There are lots of alternatives, no doubt you’ll get a hundred different opinions 
Just to be clear, do you mean “Any Alternative” ?
Or, “A small / lower powered / cheaper alternative” ?
The Raspberry Pi is inexpensive but low powered. Some people use an Intel NUC. Personally I have a Debian VM on my son’s server.
Well I would say that knowing the range of available devices would help me to make the proper choice.
A good compromise between cost and quality and of course something fine for my small project. Just to mak eit clear I am lloking at the hardware side of the house preferibly under windows.
I think Intel NUC can run Windows. From what I understand OpenHAB can run under Windows but that is not a primary platform widely tested by the developers.
You’re adding a world of pain to a setup by using a MS Windows based OS.
If your considering a Raspberry Pi, then you’re already looking down the Linux rabbit hole.
Speaking as someone who certainly isn’t a programmer, it’s not impossible to learn.
Thankfully there are some great people here who will help those who are prepared to put some effort in.
I can’t help you with cheaper / lower cost options than the Raspberry Pi.
Especially if you’re starting out with Linux and openHAB2.
The openhabian Raspberry Pi ‘image’ can be flashed to an SD card quite easily from a Windows session and has everything you need to get openHAB2 up and running.
Greater people than I will have to assist further.
openHAB works fine under Windows.
No problem using it on a box also supporting other Windows based services.
But to support only openHAB, it’s crackers. You get a bloated operating system with all kinds of unwanted “helpful” features.
yes or whatever you use as your OH server
No.
They can be based on any transport layer (as long as you have HW interfaces to connect them to the OH server software instance).
ZWave,ZigBee,Bluetooth,RS485, …, WiFi and Ethernet all are fine, not to mention all the proprietary stuff.
You’re asking very basic questions that for the most part are covered by the OH docs.
Please read the docs from the beginning and don’t just fly over.
And please search the forum before posting.
How to ask a good question / Help Us Help You - Tutorials & Examples - openHAB Community
Thank You for your useful infos. I will read and study!