Mycroft - A open source option for a voice assistant
I have been a pretty big Google fan over the years, some would argue a huge fan. I use only Gmail, owned only Android smartphones, and I even have a Google sweatshirt! When the Google Home was announced, I was sold. I wanted one even though I knew of the Amazon Echo since it came out and was never much interested. The Google Home seemed different.
At Thanksgiving of 2016, a deal popped up for getting a Google Home with a free Chromecast 2nd gen. I only had the 1st Gen Chromecast so I was in! The Google Home lacked features at the time, but as time went by, new abilities kept appearing. Eventually, I was able to cast Netflix up to the TV just by asking. Pretty cool.
Beginning a few months ago, upon the arrival of Firefox Quantum, I decided to give it a try, even though I had been a happy Chrome user for many years. After a short time of use, I was hooked and eventually made the decision to move over to it as my primary browser.
Since I run Linux, and I have a dark theme, I like most things that follow the theme. Chrome was often slow to adopt the Linux desktop. With the switch to Firefox and enjoying it, I wondered what else I was missing on. I tried out some of the popular Email clients on Linux, and found Geary, which also adopted my Linux theme well, moving me away from the Gmail web client.
A couple of months ago, I got an email from Red Hat, with there usual handful of interesting things people are doing in Linux. They had a link about a AI unit named Mycroft. Open source and it could do lots of stuff like Amazon Echo and Google Home. I was intrigued and with my recent experience on trying other stuff outside of Google, I was all the more interested.
I watched some videos, checked out what it could do, and I was soon hooked. I needed to have one, so I looked into its cost and where to buy one. That is when I learned that they were working on a refresh, big update Mark II model. After checking it out and loving the new design even more, I funded the crowd sourced campaign. They have a great looking design, and the screen seems to allow some cool features and abilities that Google and Amazon's units just can't match in their current form. I am a huge open source fan, so it being open, and not backed by a big company that is likely to try and use information about your interactions as marking or selling the info, all the better.
What is even better is you can even go on to build your own using a Raspberry Pi to either save some money or get a unique design based on where you want to place or hide it. It even can work inside the Linux desktop if you so desire.
If this sounds interesting to you, check out the Indiegogo campaign for their upcoming Mark II device below.
At Thanksgiving of 2016, a deal popped up for getting a Google Home with a free Chromecast 2nd gen. I only had the 1st Gen Chromecast so I was in! The Google Home lacked features at the time, but as time went by, new abilities kept appearing. Eventually, I was able to cast Netflix up to the TV just by asking. Pretty cool.
Beginning a few months ago, upon the arrival of Firefox Quantum, I decided to give it a try, even though I had been a happy Chrome user for many years. After a short time of use, I was hooked and eventually made the decision to move over to it as my primary browser.
Since I run Linux, and I have a dark theme, I like most things that follow the theme. Chrome was often slow to adopt the Linux desktop. With the switch to Firefox and enjoying it, I wondered what else I was missing on. I tried out some of the popular Email clients on Linux, and found Geary, which also adopted my Linux theme well, moving me away from the Gmail web client.
A couple of months ago, I got an email from Red Hat, with there usual handful of interesting things people are doing in Linux. They had a link about a AI unit named Mycroft. Open source and it could do lots of stuff like Amazon Echo and Google Home. I was intrigued and with my recent experience on trying other stuff outside of Google, I was all the more interested.
I watched some videos, checked out what it could do, and I was soon hooked. I needed to have one, so I looked into its cost and where to buy one. That is when I learned that they were working on a refresh, big update Mark II model. After checking it out and loving the new design even more, I funded the crowd sourced campaign. They have a great looking design, and the screen seems to allow some cool features and abilities that Google and Amazon's units just can't match in their current form. I am a huge open source fan, so it being open, and not backed by a big company that is likely to try and use information about your interactions as marking or selling the info, all the better.
What is even better is you can even go on to build your own using a Raspberry Pi to either save some money or get a unique design based on where you want to place or hide it. It even can work inside the Linux desktop if you so desire.
If this sounds interesting to you, check out the Indiegogo campaign for their upcoming Mark II device below.
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