Windows and macOS have similar clients (Hass.Agent for Windows and Home Assistant for macOS).
I’ve found these kinds of clients useful because I can remotely wake-up or sleep computers, track how long they are turned on for, and automatically pause my lights and music when my webcam turns on.
Just set up MQTT in home Assistant, why not?
But that requires a broker, right?
It does. I use Mosquito but I believe HA has a built in one too. Mosquito was easy enough to set up though.
Honestly MQTT is like the nervous system of my HA setup. I started using it with Tasmota when I Tasmotised all my cheap WiFi bulbs, then opted for Zigbee2mqtt for my ZigBee setup.
But I also have things like my bedside clock (an old phone running WallPanel), my doorway tablet (a Nexus 7 running Fully Kiosk Browser), my PC and even my alarm clock app on my phone, all running through MQTT.
I even had Tasker on my phone communicating with HA via MQTT before I gave up on that. It’s really useful