I purchased the original Umbrel Home in May 2024 and it’s been running in my office ever since it arrived. There have been a number of updates since then and my usage and appreciation for it has only grown.

What I Use it For

I have nearly twenty applications running on my Umbrel. And, obviously, some get more use than others. Here are a handful of the most crucial to my workflows:

• FreshRSS — This is the backbone of my RSS system. I use FreshRSS several times each day, syncing with NetNewsWireon my Apple devices, Fluent Reader on Android, and Newsflash on Linux.
• Gitea — Although I don’t work with it too often, this is where the code lives for a handful of my projects.
• Heimdall — The homepage software I use. I have a page set up for my home server links and I also have a page configured with links to work-related tools.
• Linkwarden — I’ve tried a number of solutions for saving links for later and Linkwarden is by far my favorite. I have some complaints about the mobile app, but they’re all pretty minor. The key is that this is one of the most important apps I run on Umbrel. Every single link I publish on Initial Charge is first saved to Linkwarden.
• MeTube — An excellent tool for downloading videos from YouTube. It even offers the option to subscribe to channels or playlists that the service will check regularly and automatically download new videos that have been added. When I interact with YouTube now, more often than not it’s through MeTube.
• n8n — This is a relatively new application on this list. It’s an automation tool similar to IFTTT or Zapier. But it’s entirely self-hosted. Because of this tool, I was able to cancel my IFTTT Pro plan and save myself about $35 a year.
• Vaultwarden — An excellent password manager that we sync with the official Bitwarden apps on iOS, macOS, Linux, and the browser extension in Brave.

Do My Issues Still Stand?

Back when I wrote my initial review I had a handful of issues that cropped up during my time with it. I thought I’d revisit those to see if they are still problems I’m experiencing or if they were bugs that have since been fixed.

I’ve run into occasional SSL errors with my Lightning Node. The fix is relatively simple, but requires using SSH or the system’s built-in command line interface.

I haven’t experienced this problem again. The forum thread I referenced hasn’t had a new message since April 2024, so it seems this was fixed in a subsequent release of the Lightning Node app or UmbrelOS.

The Bitcoin Node has randomly dropped to zero peers and stops updating. Restarting the app hasn’t resolved the issue for me and I end up having to reboot the entire system.

This is another problem that I haven’t experienced in quite a long time.

Speaking of rebooting, the first time I tried using the “Restart” option from within the web interface, the reboot never completed. I waited for several minutes and eventually used the power button to force the shutdown. Since then I’ve only used the “Shutdown” option in the web interface and then started it back up using the power button on the front. That method has been far more consistent for me.

The Umbrel Home is connected to an uninterruptible power supply and I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve had to reboot it over the past year. But I can’t say I’ve run into this issue again. I completely forgot that I was having trouble with it at all.

I’ve had instances where the Umbrel becomes randomly inaccessible from some of the computers on my network.

I haven’t experienced this lately either and I seem to remember it disappearing not too long after publishing my review.

There’s been a couple of times where my two-factor authentication codes didn’t work for logging in. I had to disable the feature from another system where I was already logged in. I can’t say for certain whether this was an Umbrel issue or something wrong with 1Password, though.

This would have been a serious issue if it persisted, but it didn’t. I’m still not sure if it was related to 1Password or Umbrel, but the problem did disappear at some point.

Any New Issues or Annoyances?

I haven’t run into any bugs in quite a while. The operating system itself has felt rock solid for nearly the entire time I’ve owned the Umbrel Home — just the handful I noted near the beginning of ownership.

There are a few limitations and annoyances that are worth noting, though.

16GB of memory is often the most pressing bottleneck. I have a lot of apps installed and many of them have received updates that improve memory usage over the time I’ve had them installed, but it’s still the biggest limitation of the hardware.

I wish it was easier to install apps that aren’t available in the Umbrel app store. They’ve done their best to help mitigate this with the introduction of community app store support and adding Portainer and other apps where you can install your own containers. But I’ve never had success with them. I haven’t been able to find any community stores that have the apps I want and configuring Docker containers with the apps available has never gone smoothly. I’m sure this is primarily because of knowledge gaps on my part, but I just wish there was an easier way.

Although I have been able to work with the 2TB of storage available in my Umbrel Home, there are apps that I would have liked to run on the Umbrel that I couldn’t because of storage limitations. Immich being the biggest one. We have about 1TB of photos in our Immich instance that’s currently running on our Mac Mini home server, but the main reason it’s running there is because I wouldn’t have enough storage on the Umbrel alongside my other data. If there was a way to connect external drives and have apps keep their data there, that would be great. But I don’t believe that’s possible at the moment.

Overall

Would I still recommend the Umbrel Home? Yes. It’s an excellent machine that’s only improved in the time I’ve used it. Between the introduction of new apps to the store and new improvements in the OS — like a new file manager, added backup functionality, and bug fixes — I think UmbrelOS and the Umbrel Home are an excellent choice for anyone looking to dabble in self-hosting or those that want to expand their existing setup.

Pricing is a bit of a sticking point for me with the current model. It starts at $599 now, which is quite a jump from the $399 that I paid for it back in 2024. And the base model only comes with 1TB of storage. If you want 2TB it’ll cost you $699 and 4TB goes for $949.

But that’s more a reflection of the current price of storage and computer hardware in general. I’m sure you can put something together with similar hardware specifications for less, but I don’t think you’d save that much. And although you can still install UmbrelOS on your own hardware, you will miss out on some features and support. I think the extra cost is worth it.

But then we get to the Umbrel Pro. I don’t think that’s worth purchasing. Upgrading to the Umbrel Pro, the price starts at $699 and that only includes 64GB of eMMC for UmbrelOS. If you want additional storage, you have to bring your own SSDs or pay for overpriced storage at the time of purchase to have them pre-installed.

And it’s not as if the additional performance is enough to make a massive difference for most use cases. If you want something more powerful for running local LLMs or other performance hungry applications, you’re probably better off looking elsewhere and/or building your own machine for the purpose.

Similarly, if a large amount of storage is what you need, the Umbrel Pro isn’t necessarily the best option for that either. Sure, it has four M.2 slots for SSDs, but SSDs are really expensive right now. If you want a ton of storage, you’re much better off with 3.5-inch SATA drives, which the Umbrel Pro can’t really accommodate aside from using a USB enclosure. And at that point you’re stuck with a messy setup and the inability to install applications on those large external drives — for things like media storage with a Plex or Jellyfin server, for example.

I would say, skip the Umbrel Pro entirely. The Umbrel Home will be plenty for most users and is an excellent piece of hardware. I have, on numerous occasions, considered recommending one to my less technically inclined family members as a Time Machine backup solution that would also allow them to dip their toes into the world of self-hosting. It really is that good.

Imagine an alternate reality where the Mac Pro became a system optimized for large amounts of internal storage. You could pop it open and there were six 3.5-inch SATA drive slots and a few M.2 NVMe slots as well.

Or if it was designed as an upgradable Mac and Apple released mainboards with each new M-series chip that you could swap out to upgrade your system with ease.

There’s a lot of ways that Apple could have made the Mac Pro a unique and interesting computer in their lineup that truly had a reason to exist. But instead, they chose to make it a Mac Studio in an overpriced chassis that no longer served a purpose.

It’s a shame. In the late 2000s, the Mac Pro was cool — cooler than any other machine they made. I wish they could have done that again, but I don’t think they ever felt motivated to do so — they were too busy chasing soldered components and computers with ever shrinking footprints.

➝ Source: 9to5mac.com

Keg Quirk:

If you’re on the hunt for a new device, I’d seriously consider looking at an Intel Mac with Linux. They’re blazing fast, they look great, and are amazing value.

The only downside is that this window is closing. Apple’s move to the M-series chips means Linux support will be tougher over time. Projects like Asahi Linux exist, but support varies and the long-term outlook is unclear.

He bought a 2015 iMac for his son and set it up with Ubuntu Mate 24.04.

I think I basically have all of the Intel-based Mac hardware I really want or need. I suppose a Mac Pro would be rad to own, if only because that was the machine I dreamed of owning when I was in college. But honestly, I don’t have much use for one other than to feel cool for owning one. But that emotion is fleeting, especially since I can’t imagine anyone actually caring except me.

Apple’s decision to abandon hardware that’s more than a handful of years old does present a great opportunity, though. If you’re looking for handsome, stable hardware, at a decent price, you can do a lot worse than a late-model Intel Mac with Linux installed on it.

➝ Source: kevquirk.com

The Steam Machine will probably receive the most attention and for good reason. It’s essentially a more powerful Steam Deck in a home console form factor. And it’s much smaller than you would expect — it looks like a half-height Xbox Series X.

It’s worth watching the announcement video, even if you’re not too interested in video game hardware. It’s such a well produced video — it’s quick, no fluff, and flows nicely from one announcement to the next.

➝ Source: store.steampowered.com

If you haven’t seen my earlier editions in this series, I’ve previously written about the assembly process and some initial impressions on the Framework’s hardware. Today I’m sharing my final thoughts after using the machine for a handful of months.

Performance and Thermals

My needs for a laptop aren’t particularly demanding from a performance standpoint. I do most of my video conversion and gaming on other machines. The Framework is primarily used for media playback, web browsing, and text editing. But I have spent a bit of time playing Hearthstone and emulating various retro systems. The Framework handled it all like a champ.

For those that would like some more hard data, I’ve done a few passes with Geekbench in each of Ubuntu’s power profiles and you can find the averages below:

It’s worth noting that the fan gets quite loud when the system’s under load for a period of time. I’m not sure how this would compare to non-Apple laptops, since that’s what I have experience with. But the Framework fan is louder than any MacBook I’ve owned, for sure.

Battery Life

I haven’t done any formal testing of battery life on the Framework. It’s much worse than what I get on my M2 MacBook Air, but I expected that going in.

To put a ballpark number on it, I’d say I get 4-6 hours of battery life depending on what I’m doing. That is enough for my needs. It’s incredibly rare for me to use a computer for that length of time without access to a charger. Especially since the Framework isn’t the computer I use for work.

If I was using the Framework as my work machine and took it to a meetup, I could imagine the limited battery life being a bit more precarious. But that isn’t my use case. And even if it was, I suspect there is more I could do to improve things. I haven’t made any adjustments to the bios and am mostly using Ubuntu’s defaults for power settings.

Expansion Cards Revisited

When I first ordered the Framework 13, I ordered it with four USB-C expansion cards. Much of the cables and accessories I use each day are already using USB-C so it wasn’t clear to me what I would actually want beyond that.

I figured the port setup would evolve over time, but wanted to live with it as USB-C only at the beginning and simply monitor what adapters and dongles I used to better inform my decision on the expansion card setup.

Since then I’ve purchased two additional expansion cards — USB-A and microSD. The USB-A expansion card lives in the Framework while the microSD just lives in my bag and functions as a dongle. I don’t actually use microSD cards often enough for it to live in the Framework, but I figure, if I’m going to own and use dongles, they might as well be Framework expansion cards. With that in mind, I suspect I’ll end up with more of them in the future.

I ended up with this setup because, while I don’t often connect multiple accessories to my laptop at a time, I could imagine scenarios where I would want the machine connected to a power adapter while also connecting multiple hard drives. Since most of my cables are USB-C, I figured a third USB-C port would be more beneficial than a second USB-A port.

Minor Hardware Details

Just to cover some additional, relatively minor hardware details, here’s some rapid fire impressions:

• Fingerprint Reader — it works well and doubles as the system’s power button. I wish I could get it working with 1Password, but that’s more of an Ubuntu and 1Password issue, I’m sure.
• Webcam and Mic Switches — I like that these exist and they work as intended, but I don’t actually use them.
• Speakers — They sound just fine. Not as good as a MacBook, but better than the average Windows laptop, I would say.

Linux First

This is the first workstation I’ve ever owned that has only had Linux installed on it. No Windows, no macOS, just Linux. It feels pretty cool.

I’ve gone with Ubuntu 24.04. That’s mostly because it’s the distribution that I have the most experience with, but also because I prefer a more stable release that I can rely on for a longer period of time — 24.04 being a long term support release. Ubuntu also happens to have a massive wealth of community knowledge published on the web. Just about any issue you could possibly experience has been asked and answered on Reddit, Ask Ubuntu, or documented on someone’s personal weblog.

I still feel like I’m fairly new to Linux, despite dabbling in it for years at this point. And I occasionally find myself completely lost, but having access to such a massive amount of documented solutions is reassuring. It helps me feel like I can tackle anything that comes up.

The biggest caveat for me with Ubuntu is snap packages. Honestly, because much of what I read online paints them in a negative light. But I’m also not in love with the fact that Ubuntu is (as far as I know) the only distribution that even uses them. That alone indicates that they may not be long for this world.

Rather than trudge using snap packages, I’ve followed this guide to completely remove them from Ubuntu. I just rely on .deb packages and Flatpak instead and haven’t found any apps that I’m unable to install using those methods.

But setting aside the specifics of my Linux setup, you may be wondering why I decided to purchase a dedicated Linux machine at all. Well, I’m tired of being reliant on Apple’s ecosystem. The company has changed and I don’t find their products to be as exciting as they used to be.

It doesn’t feel like Apple makes products that are designed for people like me anymore. People who like to tinker and have control over their hardware. People who like to upgrade components in old systems and re-use machines for new projects. People who believe that a computer’s life should span well beyond the manufacturer’s willingness to provide software support.

In contrast, Framework is a company that is built upon those principals and creates products that embody them. I like that. A lot.

I don’t expect I’ll completely remove myself from Apple’s ecosystem. The iPhone is still a tremendous piece of hardware. Despite Apple’s insistence on holding back the platform with foolish App Store policies, I continue to prefer iOS. Android offers significantly more freedom, but it’s hard to get beyond some of its clunkier design details and inferior third-party applications — there are entire categories of apps for which the best option on Android wouldn’t even make the top five on iOS.

The goal for me with the Framework, though, is to refocus my use of software and services so that the possibility of leaving the Apple ecosystem entirely — even if it never comes to that — is much more attainable. I want Apple to be in a position where they need to do more to convince me and others like me to continue buying their products.

They should have to work harder on that. But in order to make strides toward that end, I need to disrupt the platform lock-in. I need to move away from applications that are only available on macOS and iOS and start using cross-platform alternatives. The Framework laptop with Linux will be the catalyst for that change.

Overall

Despite its tradeoffs, I absolutely love the Framework laptop. I hesitate to call it my favorite laptop of all time, mostly because I don’t want to fall victim to recency bias. But it’s definitely in the running.

The other laptop that would be in contention for that crown would be the 11-inch MacBook Air. I used the 2011 model as my primary machine for about seven years. It’s the most compact laptop I’ve ever owned and I’ve used it to run some of my favorite releases of macOS ever.

The Framework is a different type of machine, though. It’s less portable and doesn’t quite have the same level of fit and finish of Apple computers, but I can swap out the expansion cards to get the exact ports I need. I can upgrade any components down the line, including the entire mainboard. I can run an operating system on it that isn’t macOS and that is a feature that’s officially supported.

The Framework is flexible in ways that Apple computers aren’t. And I’m excited about what possibilities that will bring for me.

I placed my order for a Framework 13 at the end of October. My primary motivation for ordering a Framework rather than an Apple laptop was a deep desire to break out of the Apple ecosystem. Or, at the very least, give myself an opportunity to get one foot out the door.

Most of the time that I’ve spent as an Apple user, I was incredibly happy. Apple was making the best hardware in the market and I felt like their machines offered unmatched versatility. You could install Windows, you could install Linux, you could run virtual machines for any operating system, you could connect external graphics cards, you could even make minor upgrades to your system’s memory or storage.

Most of that has gone away, though. The trend started about a decade ago — maybe longer — but it didn’t really feel like it impacted me much until around the time they transitioned to Apple Silicon.

That transition resulted in the end of Boot Camp, major limitations for virtual machines, no more support for external graphics cards, and even less hardware repairability.

I’ll keep one foot in the Apple world for now — my iPhone, iPad, Mac Mini servers, and work MacBook aren’t going anywhere — but I thought it was a good time to more seriously explore the world outside of the walled garden.

Specifications

Framework 13 DIY Edition
AMD Ryzen 7640U
2.8K Matte Display
32GB of Kingston FURY Impact Memory
2TB Solidigm P44 Pro SSD
A Black Bezel
International English, Linux Keyboard
Four USB-C Expansion Cards

In terms of my thought process regarding this setup, I chose the DIY Edition because the assembly process seemed straight forward enough. I’ve built many desktop PCs in my day and have worked on the internals of just about every Apple computer I’ve ever owned. Framework was built for this sort of thing.

The 7840U offers a good performance bump compared to the 7640U that I ordered, but I figured I’d save my money a bit at the outset and consider upgrading to a higher end chip a few generations down the line. Given that the chassis is likely to be supported by Framework for several years, I’m pretty confident that this option will be available to me when the time comes.

I definitely wanted the higher resolution display. There was a brief period of time where I actually considered ordering the lower resolution option with the idea being to upgrade to the 2.8K later on. That would have given me a lower cost of entry, but the display part is just so darn expensive to buy on it’s own that I’d feel foolish doing so.

The memory choice just came down to picking one that Framework mentioned on their compatibility document. Similarly, the solid state drive was based on a recommendation that I saw on Reddit.

I went with the black bezel because I thought it looked the best out of the options available. If I were to have ordered one of the colored bezels, I think orange is nicest one.

As for the keyboard, I chose the only Linux variant offered because that will be the machine’s primary operating system.

The expansion cards probably took me the longest amount of time to make a decision on. I ultimately decided to just get four USB-C cards because I’ve spent several years with MacBook’s that only offered USB-C and I’ve transitioned much of the cables and accessories in my life over to USB-C as well. At the very least, my plan was to live with it like this for a bit and see how much I’d benefit from swapping out a port or two for something else.

Assembly Impressions

The process of assembling the Framework 13 was just about as easy as I expected. They have a great guide to follow and it’s basically as simple as installing the memory and storage, attaching the input cover, connecting the bezel, and tightening a handful of screws.

The biggest snag I ran into was with the bezel. I’ve seen some other reports online of similar experiences, so I knew to slow down for that portion of the process. The crux of the issue is that it’s not clear how the wires should be routed alongside the hinge, which can make it difficult to get the bottom edge of the bezel seated properly. It took me a few tries to get it right, but I eventually managed.

It’s a great touch that the Framework comes with a screwdriver — the only tool that you need to assemble the machine. I think the screwdriver itself is deserving of a bit of criticism, though.

The handle end of the screwdriver has an integrated spudger. That can be useful when working with ribbon cables or gently prying two parts away from one another. The spudger end had a tendency to dig into my palm when I was using it as a screwdriver, though. It didn’t break skin, but it made the screwdriver uncomfortable to use for me.

Program Note

I have a lot of thoughts on the Framework laptop and have decided to break up my review of the machine into three separate articles. So you can look forward to reading the rest of my thoughts throughout the month of December.

The next installment will include my thoughts on physical hardware and design — the keyboard, trackpad, display, and so on. The final article will be all of the details about actually using the machine — battery life, performance, thermals, fan noise, etc.

Update 12/27/24 — Framework: Hardware
Update 4/3/25 — Framework: Final Thoughts

Seems like a solid update to me. I still wish they would offer some degree of upgradability in their machines. Even if they just added an M.2 slot in the bottom that you could use to add some internal storage.

But I’m sure Apple won’t be releasing hardware with those capabilities any time soon. It’s unfortunate.

➝ Source: macrumors.com

Al Williams, writing for Hackaday:

Around 2006, a company called Ageia produced the PhysX card, which promised to give PCs the ability to do sophisticated physics simulations without relying on a video card.

Keep in mind that when this was built, multi-core CPUs were an expensive oddity and games were struggling to manage everything they needed to with limited memory and compute resources. The PhysX card was a “PPU” or Physics Processor Unit and used the PCI bus. Like many companies, Ageia made the chips and expected other companies — notably Asus — to make the actual board you’d plug into your computer.

I remember there being a lot of hype when this first launched, but it seemed like such a useless product to me. There were never that many games that supported it and most people would get more benefit from spending that $300 on a better CPU, GPU, or by purchasing a second GPU that they could run in SLI or CrossFire.

➝ Source: hackaday.com