umbrelOS on Umbrel Home vs. DIY
We are designing umbrelOS to provide the best possible user experience of running a personal cloud by tightly integrating the software with our own hardware, the Umbrel Home. This approach allows us to:
- Ensure compatibility: For example, features like external storage support and Wi-Fi rely on specific hardware configurations/drivers, that we can guarantee only on Umbrel Home. For example, on a Raspberry Pi, attaching external drives can trigger power issues, risking crashes or data loss.
- Optimize performance: We can fine-tune the software for our hardware, delivering a faster, more reliable experience.
- Innovate quickly: Focusing on one hardware platform lets us roll out new features and updates faster, and streamlines the testing.
Making umbrelOS freely available for non-Umbrel Home hardware is our way of supporting the DIY community. While it doesn’t include all the features of the Umbrel Home version, it still offers an elegant and powerful self-hosting OS for those who prefer to use their own hardware.
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umbrelOS on Umbrel Home: Get the complete umbrelOS experience with all features, optimized performance, and priority support. It’s the easiest way to self-host, with everything working out of the box.
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umbrelOS on your own hardware: Opt for this if you’re a DIY enthusiast who enjoys customizing your setup. You’ll get all the core functionality with community support, though some features (like external storage support) are unavailable due to hardware variability.
