diff --git a/roles/home/zsh.nix b/roles/home/zsh.nix
index fd2bca5..f3b962f 100644
--- a/roles/home/zsh.nix
+++ b/roles/home/zsh.nix
@@ -8,4 +8,15 @@
       theme = "bira";
     };
   };
+
+  home.file.".bash_profile".text =
+    # not having the attribute users means
+    # we cannot change the default shell (e.g. this is not a NixOS host)
+    if ! builtins.hasAttr "users" config then ''
+      if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then
+        . "$HOME/.bashrc"
+      fi
+
+      exec ${pkgs.zsh}/bin/zsh
+    '' else null;
 }