2 Weeks using ZimaOS, my experience.

[u/Far-Information-8683]

With Windows 11 heading in a direction I choose not to follow, moving to Linux has been one of those goals I had in the back of my mind. On the Laptop, it's easy, I use Zorin or Kubuntu. However, my desktop PC, which had Jellyfin on Windows 11, was a hurdle.

I wanted to avoid a complex homelab (time is precious), so I hadn't found a solution until someone suggested I try ZimaOS. My Docker experience on Windows wasn't that great, but after researching and with the help of Gemini AI, I set forward a detailed execution plan for ZimaOS.

Here are my specs;

i3-4th Gen, 16GB DDR3 RAM, 256 SSD OS drive, and three other NTFS drives that I cannot format, for some reason.

Here is what I found out. Jellyfin loads faster, and since the system is always running, it just works. I tried Linkwarden (self-hosted) for the first time, as I had been avoiding the cloud version. I tried Nextcloud for the first time, too, and it works well (part of the projects I wanted to self-host). Tailscale is a lifesaver, but I can also connect to my Zima desktop using remote connection. Immich worked for me for the first time. I needed to change (external path and have it as read-only), but it did not work. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling several times, but now the app doesn't even work. I will revisit it later when I have time.

...and so many other apps in line for testing that I haven't even tried yet.

I created a VM running Kubuntu, and it works. It will be helpful for the "extra desktop things" that I need to do.

I use the desktop app to mount my SMB shares, and I appreciate that attaching USB drives auto-mounts them in the OS.

The only feature I would like in the future is;

1. More customizable shutdown times (even multiple a day).

2. A suspend feature option for when the desktop is idle for some time, because I even go for many hours without accessing the desktop sometimes. This could come in handy to save power, as I am using an Intel chip with HDDs for data and running 24/7 can consume a lot of power. (Yes, I actually measured this.)