"I don't want bluetooth and an app, I want rs485 and a specification"
Silly things. A heated coffee mug (app-controlled). An air purifier (app-controlled). A home generator (app-controlled). sigh.
At costco the other day, there were gift cards for two movie chains ($50 for $39). One was just "take this card to the register", the other one was an app/website and more mess (and a hard pass)
Me neither
> "I want rs485 and a specification”
I want ethernet and a well-documented API. Put the thing in its own network segment which does not connect to the outside world and you get to have an the advantages of a network-connected device without any of the disadvantages. No automatic updates taking away functionality, no chance for bad actors to hijack your devices but still all the possibilities offered by having direct network access.
Framework's AMD laptops notably have a Zephyr based embedded controller. Good stuff.
There's definitely some strong OpenBMC efforts ongoing right now in server space. AMD says they're going to replace (closed) AGESA bring-up code with OpenSIL, so consumers might even have access to firmware it yourself too, sometime this decade.