This is a relevant watch by James Hoffmann on how open source espresso machines kinda turned into Decent Espresso. (edit: ok, on rewatch i guess it wasn't open source, it was kickstarter, however philosophy was the similar - use off-the-shelf components and software)
For what it's worth, i've had a Decent DE1+ for about 2 years, and while it's very unlikely i'll change, i am excited to see what other options crop up in the coming years. for me personally, there is no competition, mainly from a quick-to-heat and pressure/flow profiling perspective, both of which are quite important to me.
my understanding is the hardware side for accurate flow-profiling really is quite hard with off-the-shelf components, so the open source espresso machine is unlikely to become a widely available commodity, unlike say 3d printers which can easily be homebrewed and work amazingly well.
The Decent machines sure are nice, and they definitely are pricey -- more than my admittedly absurd traditional machine, even -- but with so much "smarts" I just assume that they will eventually become a maintenance nightmare.
It's kind of a sad thing, but after 30 years in software I have come away with a strong bias that is best stated as "Stop putting software in things that don't need software." I'll cop to the fact that my R58 has a touchscreen controller hanging of the side, which is somewhat inelegant, but its job is limited and thus acceptable to me. (It keeps time, and has the machine ready for me in the two windows I know I like coffee while letting it sleep the rest of the time; it's also apparently the home of the smarts for the PID.)
There's a machine called the Meticulous which is launching a kickstarter soon which is attempting to somewhat do this. It's a lot simpler mechanically because it's just an automated lever machine (i.e. no pump).
The downside is no steam wand but tbh if I didn't already have a Decent DE1Pro I'd probably get a Meticulous or a Flair 58 and that new nanofoamer pro for milk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKA2COJRt6M
For what it's worth, i've had a Decent DE1+ for about 2 years, and while it's very unlikely i'll change, i am excited to see what other options crop up in the coming years. for me personally, there is no competition, mainly from a quick-to-heat and pressure/flow profiling perspective, both of which are quite important to me.
my understanding is the hardware side for accurate flow-profiling really is quite hard with off-the-shelf components, so the open source espresso machine is unlikely to become a widely available commodity, unlike say 3d printers which can easily be homebrewed and work amazingly well.