The Unraid Story

On this very special episode of the Uncast Show, we are joined by the Founder and CEO of Lime Technology, Tom Mortensen, and his daughter and Co-CEO Tiffany Jones, to talk about the origins of Unraid OS, the evolution of the product over the past 18+ years, and upcoming changes to the company to better align the product and user's desires in Unraid 7 and beyond.

Episode Details

Tom and Tiffany share their personal career journeys and take us down memory lane as Unraid incorporated VMs and Docker containerization, GPU passthrough (a decision that dramatically shifted the course of the company with Linus Tech Tips), made key hires to expand the team, and talk about some key projects and initiatives that got the company where it is today.

The conversation shifts gears to the future and goes into the upcoming changes to Unraid's pricing model for new licenses and why this change is crucial and necessary for sustaining the company and improving the product for all in the years to come. Please refer to our blog for full details on the upcoming pricing change.

Wrapping up the episode, we'll get a first look at Unraid 7 and explore some exciting future OS features and projects such as making the unRAID array optional, integrating and maintaining plugins into the OS, VM Snapshots and cloning, the "Hardware Database," the "My Friends Network," a new Unraid website, a public, open-source Unraid API and much, much more.

⏱️ Discussion Timestamps

00:30 Lime Technology Co-CEO's Intro and hot seat questions

04:42 Tom's background before creating Unraid

11:00 ZFS advantages and disadvantages

14:29 The Origin Story of Unraid

21:51 The Evolution of Unraid from selling hardware to focusing solely on the OS

25:29 Unraid adds VMs and Docker Management

29:14 Unraid Adds GPU Passthrough and catches the attention of @LinusTechTips in 2015

31:20 2018-19: Unraid makes key hires, rebrands, and doubles down on the business

35:10 Growing and scaling an all-remote, geographically spread out team

40:30 Unraid's key differentiator: the Community

45:55 Coming Changes to Unraid: Why and what is coming to ensure we remain community focused and supported in the years ahead

51:15 Why we came to this decision + what happens to current users?

1:00:35 Further aligning the company and users with Unraid 7

1:02:16 Exciting Unraid 7 features coming

1:10:37 Other exciting projects planned such as making the unRAID array optional, integrating and maintaining plugins into the OS, VM Snapshots and cloning, the "Hardware Database," the "My Friends Network," a public, open-source Unraid API, and more

Full episode transcript