ZimaOS 1.7 - Home Server OS With Jellyfin, VMs And AI
he Ice Whale team asked me to take a look at ZimaOS 1.7, the updated version of the operating system that ships on the ZimaBoard. But here's the thing — you don't need a ZimaBoard to run it. I installed it on an old Intel i7 NUC…
he Ice Whale team asked me to take a look at ZimaOS 1.7, the updated version of the operating system that ships on the ZimaBoard. But here's the thing — you don't need a ZimaBoard to run it. I installed it on an old Intel i7 NUC that was gathering dust, and in this video I walk through everything it can do: file server, media server, VMs, AI models, and a huge app store — all managed from a browser, all drawing two watts on this old box.
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WHAT ZIMAOS IS
It's a home server OS. Not your main machine — a box that sits somewhere in the house doing jobs for you. File storage, media streaming, backups, containers. Install is dead simple: flash the ISO to USB with Balena Etcher, run the installer, and you're left with a text screen showing an IP address. Type that into a browser on any machine and you manage everything from the web interface.
THE DASHBOARD
Clean setup — set your language, create a login, and you're in. System stats, drive health, power draw, widgets. Storage is where it gets serious: build your own RAID pools for media and files. One catch — the free version caps you at four disks (one RAID 5 array). Unlimited disks needs Zima Plus at $29, a one-off purchase. Four 20TB drives in RAID 5 still gets you a serious amount of protected storage without paying, so most people are covered. And remember — RAID is not backup. Always have a backup.
THE APP STORE
This is the strength. One-click installs for a huge catalogue: Jellyfin and Plex for media, Minecraft server (with a management tool — my son would love that), Radarr, RetroArch, Transmission, productivity tools, even a farm records system. There's Docker underneath, custom app installs from App Image or YAML, and a Cloudflare tunnel option.
The AI section is properly done — Ollama comes in both AMD and Nvidia flavours, so if you've got an Nvidia card it offloads compute into VRAM properly. I installed Ollama with the web UI, pulled down Gemma, and it just worked.
PEER DROP
Their file transfer tool, which looks to be built on the LocalSend protocol — same as my omarchy-send client. I tried to get my LocalSend to discover it and they wouldn't pair, so it may be on its own port, but the idea is the same: fire files at the box from anywhere in the house.
VIRTUAL MACHINES
This surprised me — a proper web-driven VM system with pre-configured OS images. Arch is in the list, and you can pull ISOs from a URL, so I might try sticking Omarchy on it. No video acceleration so it's for testing and tinkering rather than gaming, but having Fedora or Mint a click away in a browser with zero VirtualBox faff is genuinely nice.
A FEW BUMPS
I hit a couple of odd password prompts on community apps that didn't explain themselves, and the odd rough edge in the new app store. Nothing serious, and the Ice Whale community forum is active with people answering questions.
WHO THIS IS FOR
If you're starting out with self-hosting and want to escape Windows, this is a brilliant playground. Everything is containerised on a separate box, so you can experiment without wrecking your main machine. Learn Jellyfin, learn Docker, run AI models, build RAID arrays — all safely. And further down the line you'll end up like me, rolling your own servers instead of using app stores. That's the natural progression, and this is a great place to start it.
ZimaOS is free from the Ice Whale site and runs on almost anything — old NUC, mini PC, or their own boards. And Ice Whale, if you're reading — I'd love a play with the ZimaCube.
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I make videos about Linux, Omarchy, self-hosting, home lab, and gaming. Subscribe if that's your thing.
00:00 - Start
00:09 - INTRO
01:33 - LOOK AROUND ZIMA OS
12:40 - FINAL WORDS