I get asked this alot.
Many of us old timers tried Linux at one point in our lives and didn't like it for alot of reasons.
Many think Linux is a scarry OS.
Many think you have to use the command line to do everything or anything.
Many got scared off with all the info displayed while loading. Windows hides all that.
The simple answer to the question is No!
Now all the long time Linux users will disagree with me on this.
They continue to push the need to know the OS and commands to do things to trouble shoot. But that is the case with Windows as well.
Early development of this did require testers to enter command line commands to get this setup on their pi.
Many here are use to a desktop GUI, this doesn't have one it is a web page for HomeGenie and a separate page for HA-Bridge.