Recently, I have been getting into making my home lab. I acquired a mini pc from a marketplace trade, and I had an intel NUC lying around. In the past I even put home assistant OS on my intel compute stick too.

As I mentioned in my My DeepDive of De-Googling and Going into Opensource post, there were many things I wanted to do in the realm of opensource/selfhosting.

Most of my motivation originated from having control over my data and apps. More and more these companies are trying to squeeze every bit of information or data out of you. Facebook/Meta, Google/Android, and Microsoft/Windows; They are all just shoving AI, telemetry, ads, and more in your face.

I have used Windows all of my life since Windows 95/98, and I even used Windows Phone for three generations before finally moving onto Android with the Pixel 1 XL. Having Google Pixels ever since (now on the 9a).

I have been on Facebook since 2009, and Instagram for about the same amount of time just a year or two later joining it too.

Having tools/platforms like Canva, Windows, Google Photos, Spotify, and others making my "life easier". That is until they changed things.

Windows stopped letting you turn off telemetry and diagnostic data being sent to Microsoft, Windows 11 forcing TPM and secure boot (limiting hardware options, or forcing you to upgrade to expensive new machines), and at every turn Microsoft trying shill their apps to you. Sorry Microslop... Edge may not be as bad as Internet Explorer, but its still pretty bad.

While I'm not going to go too much into my De-Google/De-Microsoft rabbit hole today, I will share some of my alternative apps I chose.

  • Instead of Chrome/Edge = Vivaldi Browser
  • Instead of Writing Apps/Office = Obsidian
  • Instead of Airtable/Notion = Obsidian or NocoDB
  • Instead of Spotify = Navidrome/Synfonium
  • Instead of Google Photos = Immich and Zima OS file explorer

Let's start off with WHY I made a home server?

Firstly, I was already probably going to eventually, it seems that like most nerds it was inevitable. I had a few things like home assistant that I wanted to probably run at some point too, although I may only go with the docker version. Maybe not at all, since I only want it for the Voice PE device anyways.

With this whole de-googling endeavor of mine, it has gone towards becoming this getting rid of any big company.

Plus some of the things you can do with a home server is really cool. Even just the Immich app I thought was really great, and it seems like a fantastic alternative to Google Photos (or Apple Photos if you're on iOS).

Same goes for being able to make my own music streaming app or video service.

What Operating System did I choose?

When I looked at all of them I almost went with Unraid, but the cost wasn't worth it this early on in my journey. I went with Zima OS (replaced Casa OS), which I know technically is just linux with an overlay, but to the user it FEELS like a distinct OS. It also has made this starting part of the learning path a lot easier.

I couldn't ever get docker images to work on windows, it was just too complicated for a new subject to me. I think I didn't try hard enough, but it also felt weird to do on my main pc. Having a dedicated server quelled any hesitation I had about that, and Zima made it super simple to spin something up. While I did install Portainer as everyone said to do so, I don't think that in the grand scheme of things I needed to in order to accomplish the basic things.

I just came across Olares today as I was writing this, and maybe I'll try it out too. I do think that the Ugreen OS they have on their NAS also seems really approachable. While I CAN handle something like TrueNas or Unraid, the question becomes WHY should I when these easier options are better for me in the meantime. If my hardware dramatically expands, and then I need Proxmox or Kubernetes for clustering. Then that is a whole another story!

How might I change it down the road?

I didn't realize just how PERFECT this NUC would be for this use case, and honestly the metal chassis makes me feel much more relaxed about it constantly being on (it is a plastic top but oh well). My 2tb SSD also works great as a start base, as anything less would mean less apps I could start out building with.

Anything more would require multiple bays for me to make a real NAS. I did buy a bare barebones OptiPlex, however it literally doesn't include a CPU or cooler even. Let alone ram and SSD, so I would have to figure all that out.

I would love to get something like the Minisforum or Ugreen AI NAS, so I can run local LLM models plus have plenty of overhead when it comes to processing power. However those cost quite a lot, even without the drives. I'll build up to it, and probably get a small Ugreen NAS just to get myself started.

I also want to get into some really cool docker projects. I think there is a way to install Kiwix via docker, which means I can download Wikipedia to my server. Instead of my main computer, and there is also an open source alternative to Framer called Instatic. Might be fun to use to make a new website down the line too! All of these things wouldn't be possible without being confident to dip my toes into the server world. I have Zima OS to thank for that, and this post isn't sponsored by them.

Although I'm open to that possibility!

ZimaOS: A Simplified, Focused and Open NAS OS Supports all X86-64 hardware.
Meet ZimaOS, the NAS operating system that makes data management easy. Effortlessly back up files, stream media, and run apps like a pro. Unlock powerful features without the complicated setup. Download now to build your perfect private cloud.
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Also check out this guy's new channel, it is very informational.