I am a builder from Australia and use a system called AMX. It is the most advanced (and most expensive) system available. It does from memory run on a custom unix or linux platform. It can pretty much control anything as long as you have the money to spend on the system. The system in my house was aproximately AUD $230,000 including the Clipsal C-bus lighting system, plasma screens, cinema system, multi-room audio system and lots of other bits & pieces. This might seem expensive but its actually quite a cheap installation for this type of system. AMX is used in the United States Military, the white house, homes such as that of Bill Gates, etc. I highly recommend it if you can afford it. See http://www.amx.com/