I don’t think I do.
I just happen to dislike this repeating pattern of people to not carefully read the docs, ignore the recommendations, then step up asking for help which would not be needed if they had stuck with the recommendation, not even providing the minimum sufficient information it would take to help them.
So do I at times, but there’s a major difference here:
devs and you as a long term user know what you’re doing and don’t ask for help.
I’m so confused by your hostility. I thought perhaps you were just having a bad day before, but now it seems to be a pattern.
I did provide all the relevant information in my very first post. I stated I had a Linux manual install with OpenHAB 2, and was trying to upgrade to OpenHAB 3 using apt. I even asked if migrating settings wouldn’t work because my original installation was done manually. Other people seemed to be able to advise me that switching from manual to apt would not work if I was expecting settings to migrate. You sent me on a goose chase, telling me no one installs to /opt, my installation is “messed up”, and then demanding useless information about the hardware I’m using that is irrelevant to the discussion at hand.
You’re telling me that the manual install isn’t supported, but this again wasn’t apparent to me. I was following the migration instructions, and nowhere does it say in those instructions that a manual upgrade isn’t supported. Digging deeper, I can see now in the installation instructions that it is advised not to use the manual installation method, but I really didn’t have reason to even look at the installation instructions…I was following the migration instructions. I don’t know if the manual installation method wasn’t recommended when I initially started using OpenHAB 1.x, maybe things have changed since then…but, again, I would have no reason to know that.
If you were a regular user, I would ignore the hostility and continue on with my day. But I see from your flair that you’re a Maintainer and you’ve responded to some of my posts in the past, so you seem to have a great deal of authority and knowledge. The fact that you’re so belligerent surely suppresses other useful discussion, and I’m thankful that other users have still provided their input.
I’ve been looking for an excuse to try out Home Assistant. I don’t want it to sound like you’ve chased me away, but if I need to start fresh with a new install of OpenHAB I might as well try HA instead.
I hope things get better for you. Wherever you live, I hope the sun is shining and you can get some fresh air today.
Honestly, many long-time users, myself included opted for a fresh install when upgrading to OH3 anyway. I had dozens of devices and rules and hundreds of items. But the new MainUI, after a few days of exploration and learning, makes everything so seamless that you can easily wind up with a much cleaner config than if you just migrate over years of OH2 cruft.
That’s fair. I’m sure for many it’s worth starting from scratch. OH is a very powerful platform that I’ve used for many years, but I’m just a basic user who only touches the platform a couple of times a year. I don’t use anywhere near it’s real capabilities, and every time I touch it I feel like I’m having to learn it from scratch. Lately I’ve gotten the impression that HA might be better suited to casual users like me, so I’ll try it out to see.
Years ago I had a completely manual installation, then went to a repository type but when it was time to upgrade to version 3 I decided to try OpenHabian and start from fresh again. This has worked quite well and now any updates/upgrades are very simple.
I must add though that as many other long term users I prefer the config files approach wherever possible and I use that for the entire MQTT based part of my network.
For the Z-wave items I use the version 3 automated approach which means I have a (maybe not recommended) mixed approach but it works very well.
Using the old config files from v2.5 worked quite nicely, converting the rules was a bit harder even if most of them worked directly. The tough work is to understand the new concepts and capabilities of version 3 and especially so how to create a meaningful model which makes intelligent use of things like “Locations”, “Equipment”, “Properties” etc It took me many, many hours of learning, testing, starting all over…
So it is not just a version upgrade, it is a whole new concept requiring a lot of work but it is worth taking the trouble. Sooner or later one will have to do it anyhow and using an OpenHabian (or repository) installation saves a lot of work.
The semantic model is useful and highly recommended to any starter.
It’s optional however.
You can essentially continue with your OH2 config.
You can even add tags to your items in text files, that makes them also appear in UI as if you used the model UI path to … well, model them 
It’s in fact the fast track, not the goose one I’ve tried to send you down. But it’s easier to blame volunteer helpers of hostility than to put some more efforts into reading the docs, follow an expert’s advice and maybe even (Jehova!) admit it was a bad idea to as a beginner (and expecting zero-touch) go for a manual install.
Am I a beginner? As I said, I’ve been using OpenHAB since 1.x, so I’ve been using it for at least 5 years. In fact, if I recall correctly the manual install method was the only option available when I first started using it. But I admittedly only touch the system a couple of times a year, and often forget where things are when I need to make a change. I certainly wasn’t expecting zero-touch, not sure how you came away with that perception.
Anyway, I’ve moved on to Home Assistant now. I can’t compare it to OpenHAB 3.x, which I’m sure must be better (hopefully more intuitive) than OpenHAB 2.x, and Home Assistant is not as powerful as OpenHAB. But for a casual user like me, it seems like a good solution. The community is active, and the experts are friendly and helpful on discord.
I think it’s great you’re volunteering on this project, but bear in mind that your status here means your attitude colors users’ perceptions of the project as a whole. There are human beings on the other end of your keyboard.