Umbrel
Infrastructure
self-hosted server os
SHOW HN2022
225points
135comments
#235of 2,570 in 2022
Top 10%of 2022 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
17 positive, 30 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 27 critical, out of 75 comments about the project. Thread score -0.13.
Idea: 2 for, 17 againstDesign: 9 for, 4 againstExecution: 3 for, 2 againstPrivacy: 1 for, 1 againstDocs: 1 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Easy self-hosting for non-experts
From 2 comments
Love it! Private self hosting but made easy for the people (like me) who don't want to spend hours setting it all up and keeping it up to date! Also the design looks amazing,…
nathan_phoenix on HNAfter wrestling with TrueNAS for months, this looks pretty good. I also really, reaally like the initiative to make self-hosting accessible.
nfgrep on HN
Clean design and landing page
From 2 comments
I really enjoyed the landing page. I don't usually enjoy eye candy and loud designs, but this one works fine. Lots of visuals and lots of questions answered in direct ways. Great…
Xeoncross on HNLove it! Private self hosting but made easy for the people (like me) who don't want to spend hours setting it all up and keeping it up to date! Also the design looks amazing,…
nathan_phoenix on HN
Developer app store documentation and tooling
From 2 comments
#5 is very interesting to me. I use (and paid for!) Unraid. It’s generally quite good. Their Community Apps plug-in scratches the same itch as the Umbrel App Store. I run several…
pbronez on HNI’m pleased to see the support for deploying directly to your own Umbrel without going through the App Store / pull request process. This is one of my biggest frustrations with…
pbronez on HN
Objections
Heavy focus on Bitcoin and crypto apps turns people off
From 4 comments
Sorry, but with the focus on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, there's no way I'd ever be able to trust this product. Just going to their website, where that really slow image of a…
tallanvor on HNthe cryptocurrency theme makes me want to avoid it as an immediate visceral reaction. and I dabble in cryptocurrency. I would suggest that you will struggle to grow in the…
senectus1 on HNHad me until they invoked Bitcoin. That's a hard "no".
hammyhavoc on HNWith all the associations with crypto and forcing you to run a TOR/lightning node, I’ll stick with Portainer.
floatinglotus on HN
Closed source or license concerns
From 2 comments
If some one is going through the trouble of self hosting, why would they want to use a closed source proprietary OS to do it? Most of the apps available for this are open source,…
ensignavenger on HNIt defintely needs some documentation! It is closed source proprietary software, so that is one major difference.
ensignavenger on HN
Tor access on by default
From 2 comments
In the middle of building a self-hosting setup at home so I went ahead and installed this to give it a trial run. I generally like the interface and think it is a nice take on…
eightysixfour on HNYou should add an ability to turn off tor access if you don’t currently have it for sure. But why make it opt-in?
adastra22 on HN
Missing popular apps like Plex and Jellyfin
From 2 comments
In the middle of building a self-hosting setup at home so I went ahead and installed this to give it a trial run. I generally like the interface and think it is a nice take on…
eightysixfour on HN> Plex and/or jellyfin stand out as huge misses right out of the gate.
declon on HN
Requests
Make Tor remote access opt-in or disable-able
From 2 comments
You should add an ability to turn off tor access if you don’t currently have it for sure. But why make it opt-in?
adastra22 on HNPlease keep Tor access opt-out! Encouraging usage of privacy enabling services by default is good.
MacsHeadroom on HN
Support custom docker-compose apps from the UI
From 2 comments
I’m pleased to see the support for deploying directly to your own Umbrel without going through the App Store / pull request process. This is one of my biggest frustrations with…
pbronez on HNIn the middle of building a self-hosting setup at home so I went ahead and installed this to give it a trial run. I generally like the interface and think it is a nice take on…
eightysixfour on HN
Backup support
From 2 comments
What does the backup experience look like? I feel like that is a major difficulty for people looking to self host, at least for me. I would not want to lose my pictures, contacts…
leodriesch on HNThis update showed up as soon as my 10 days old install sync with the BTC Blockchain: congrats! I'm looking forward to some backup service - ideally one I can also self host…
627467 on HN
Simpler text-based app directory instead of animated landing page
From 1 comment
This is a service I'm interested in, but by fuck is their website annoying. Instead of having stupid moving rectangles of services you can run on Umbrel, why not just display…
PontifexMinimus on HN
Questions
How does it compare to Sandstorm, Yunohost and Cloudron?
From 1 comment
How does it compare to Sandstorm, yunohost, and Cloudron?
anderspitman on HN
Is security updating automatic and how fast?
From 1 comment
Looks good, I have some questions. Are security updates and DevOps automatic? How fine grained are the security updates i.e. Kernel level or app level? How long does it take…
melony on HN
Does it support S.M.A.R.T., ZFS and BTRFS?
From 1 comment
It feels like it has a lot of shared territory with FreeNAS or Synology without the hardware. What support, if any, is there for reading S.M.A.R.T. Stats, ZFS, and BTRFS? You…
evulhotdog on HN
Alternatives named
Unraid
From 2 comments
#5 is very interesting to me. I use (and paid for!) Unraid. It’s generally quite good. Their Community Apps plug-in scratches the same itch as the Umbrel App Store. I run several…
pbronez on HNNice to see more competition in that space! I'm a long term happy user of https://unraid.net/, which I can very much recommend.
wngr on HN
Start9
From 1 comment
If you are reading this please take a look at start9. https://start9.com/ The major problem with Umbrel is that even though they package all in one-solutions. If something goes…
emurillo510 on HN
Cloudron, Yunohost, Sandstorm, Freedombox
From 2 comments
> Which ones do you have in mind? Would you count ChromeOS as one of those, too? A few i had in mind (from my bookmarks): Cloudron, Sandstorm, HomelabOS, libre.sh, UBOS, Unraid,…
southerntofu on HNThere is also https://freedombox.org/ . A pure Debian Blend and also available as appliance. (Olimex A20 SBC)
holri on HN
TrueNAS
From 1 comment
After wrestling with TrueNAS for months, this looks pretty good. I also really, reaally like the initiative to make self-hosting accessible.
nfgrep on HN