51 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
51 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: documentation
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---
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{% include base.html %}
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# About openHAB
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openHAB **software** integrates different home automation systems, devices and technologies into a single solution.
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It provides uniform user interfaces, and a common approach to automation rules across the entire system, regardless of the number of manufacturers and sub-systems involved.
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## Getting Started
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We highly recommend that you read the next chapter titled [Concepts]({{base}}/concepts/index.html).
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It introduces a number of important ideas that will help you as you install and begin to configure openHAB for the first time.
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openHAB runs on many popular platforms including Linux, Windows and Mac OSx.
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You can find specific installation instructions for these and other platforms in the [Installation Overview]({{base}}/installation/index.html) article.
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Many people find that the simplest way to experiment with openHAB is to get a [Raspberry Pi](https://raspberrypi.org) and install [openHABian]({{base}}/installation/openhabian.html); a "hastle-free openHAB setup".
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While openHABian offers a streamlined and simplified way to get up and running quickly, it is a complete openHAB home automation system capable of automating your entire home.
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Once you have openHAB up and running, the [Configuration]({{base}}/configuration/index.html) article contains everything you need to know to get your openHAB installation talking to different devices around your home.
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You can use [Sitemaps]({{base}}/configuration/sitemaps.html) to control how the status of these devices are displayed on different openHAB User Interfaces, and you can begin to experiment with [Rules]({{base}}/configuration/rules-dsl.html) in order to get the most out of your installation.
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Along the way, you may have some questions; the openHAB community is here to help.
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## The openHAB Community
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openHAB is not just software - it is also a **community** of users, contributors and maintainers, working together on an open-source, interoperable approach to home automation.
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The center of this community is the [openHAB community forum](https://community.openhab.org).
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You can search previous conversations and issues to see if your question has already been answered.
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You can post your own question as well (although it is generally considered to be good etiquette to check fairly thoroughly before posting).
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One of the great things about openHAB is that it has an active and responsive community of developers and maintainers who generally respond quite quickly to forum questions.
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We believe you will find that our community works diligently to make newcomers feel at home.
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## openHAB Structure
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openHAB 2 is developed in [Java](https:/www.java.com/) and mainly based on the [Eclipse SmartHome](https://eclipse.org/smarthome/) framework.
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It uses [Apache Karaf](http://karaf.apache.org/) together with [Eclipse Equinox](https://www.eclipse.org/equinox/) to create an Open Services Gateway initiative [(OSGi)](https://www.osgi.org/) runtime environment.
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[Jetty](https://www.eclipse.org/jetty/) is used as an HTTP server.
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openHAB is highly modular software that can be extended through "Add-ons".
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Add-ons give openHAB a wide array of capabilities, from User Interfaces, to the ability to interact with a large and growing number of physical Things.
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Add-ons may come from the openHAB 2 distribution, the Eclipse SmartHome project Extensions, or from the openHAB 1 distribution.
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The overall architecture of openHAB is shown in the figure below:
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If you are new to openHAB, we suggest you continue to the [Concepts]({{base}}/concepts/index.html) chapter where we introduce many fundamental ideas that are used throughout openHAB.
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