rewrite this title This Linux distro turned my spare PC into a personal cloud powerhouse – for free

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ZDNET key takeaways

umbrelOS simplifies deploying an in-house cloud.You can install more than 200 apps with umbrelOS.umbrelOS is user-friendly and free.

I’ve been using Linux for countless purposes for decades — from desktop computing, laptops, handhelds, IoT, development, servers, and everything in between. To meet those needs, I’ve used just about every distribution imaginable and have been seriously impressed with what I can get done.

But recently, I reviewed a home-server OS that blew me away. That OS is umbrelOS 1.5.0. This Debian-based Linux distribution is created by Umbrel, Inc. and is available for both 64-bit and Raspberry Pi computers.

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umbrelOS can be used for things like web hosting, productivity, finance, media streaming, networking, automation, artificial intelligence, development, and Bitcoin mining. You can even use umbrelOS as an online app store.

This thing has a lot of tricks up its sleeve.

umbrelOS features

umbrelOS includes tons of features, such as:

Automatically encrypted backupsRewind in FilesNetwork drive mountsExternal USB storageFormatting support on amd64 devicesGPU acceleration for appsTime travel through backupsMore than 200 apps to installAt-a-glance infoLive usage

With umbrelOS, you can build your own personal cloud with ease.

The installation of umbrelOS

The installation of umbrelOS might seem a bit intimidating because it’s handled strictly via an ncurses interface, which is one step above the command line. Don’t be put off by this, as the installation is actually very easy. You answer a few simple questions, and the installation begins and completes in under two minutes.

You read that right… two minutes.

The installation was so fast that I immediately thought I’d reboot it and then have to log into a web UI to complete the setup. That was not the case. Upon completion of the installation, I rebooted the virtual machine I was using for umbrelOS and, once the boot process completed, pointed a web browser to the IP address of the server.

For those who aren’t certain how to do that, you would log into umbrelOS with the username “umbrel” and the password you set during installation. Once you’ve logged in, issue the command:

ip a

You’ll see the server IP address, which you can then use to log into the web UI (using the same username and password combination from earlier).

Using umbrelOS

Once logged into the web UI, the magic begins. You’ll be presented with a user-friendly interface where you can install your first app. Click the shop icon (it looks like a small handbag at the bottom of the display).

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You can then scan through the impressive list of apps and start installing. umbrelOS uses containers for the installation and deployment of applications, but all you have to do is find the one you want to add and click Install.

Once you’ve installed the application, close the app pop-up, and you’ll find a launcher for it on the dashboard.

Open your new app and start using it.

The first app I installed was Nextcloud because 1) I wanted to see how easy it was to install, and 2) I wanted to see how well it performed.

To my surprise, the Nextcloud deployment performed better than when I installed the app via the manual method. Nextcloud performed so well on umbrelOS that I’m considering using it as my in-house replacement for Google Drive.

Every app I installed via umbrelOS worked impressively well. The only hiccup was when I installed Ollama and Open WebUI; I realized the minimum system requirements were around 10GB of RAM (otherwise, you’ll get an error). I will say this about the Ollama Open WebUI combo: it’s not quite as fast as other Ollama instances I’ve deployed. That could be because I used a minimum of 10GB of RAM. 

There are plenty of configuration options you can tweak in Open WebUI. If you’re serious about using Ollama through umbrelOS, I suggest combing through the configuration options to eke out the most power possible.

Outside of the Ollama/WebUI issue, every app I used worked very well.

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I was quite surprised at how easy umbrelOS was to use. In roughly ten minutes, I had the following apps installed and ready to use:

Within those 10 minutes, I had my own personal cloud that would serve me very well.

As I said earlier, I’ve not been this impressed by a server-based Linux distribution in a long, long time. If you’re hoping to pull your cloud needs away from third-party companies (for privacy and security, or you simply want to save money), umbrelOS is a brilliant choice. Once installed, anyone can point and click their way to a cloud-like ecosystem that keeps all of your data and information in-house. 

With umbrelOS, you won’t have to worry that a third party is using your data to train their AI or generate a profile of you so they can better target their ads.

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If that sounds like something you need or want, I highly recommend you give umbrelOS a try. Trust me when I say that you won’t regret it. Download an ISO for this Debian-based Linux distribution and either install it as a virtual machine or on a spare computer.