Heyho,
I am an absolutely beginner when it comes to Smart Homes, but have some knowledge when it comes to coding, Linux, Docker and Co.
So, I decided to make my home smart and bought some stuff and hopefully I am now able to connect it somehow, but I am missing a good explanation/tutorial.
If I understand correctly then I should install some software on my minipc, connect it to my ZBT-2 which then form a Matter Controller which then can be somehow connected to the Matter lightbulbs. Is that general notion correct or am I already off? If it is correct, does anyone know a good tutorial for it? When I try to google Matter Controller I often find ready made ones and nothing on how to set it up on my own.
I bought the MiniPC because I want to set up a small home server, too, but that is largely unrelated.
If I would use HAOS as my real OS (so not as an image for a container), that would limit my capabilities of running other services, wouldn’t it? Sounds better to have HA containerized. I found this tutorial: https://sascha-brockel.de/en/set-up-thread-matter-in-home-assistant-with-docker/
If you plan to run other stuff, I’d rather recommend using HAOS in a VM, possibly on Proxmox VE.
If you decide to install HA as container on any other host, then you will have to install any other component/plugin/etc as external containers or services as needed. HAOS has everything included.
Especially true if you want to play around with Matter and Thread
Just use Proxmox to install HAOS as a VM