Just a quick, random rambling update of my time on Omarchy.

The last time I seriously tried to run Linux as my daily I was in high school. Due to gaming (Asheron’s Call), it wasn’t long before I was back on Windows. That experience gave me just enough exposure to the basics and get comfy on the command line, but not long enough to fully grok all the bits and pieces that make up the Linux ecosystem. I present that background to give some understanding of the mindset I took into Omarchy as I departed from macOS.

Despite the rather gross looking set up with a wire dangling across my keyboard, I’m still enjoying my time on Omarchy. More specifically, my time with Hyprland on Arch. Omarchy has been a beautiful, approachable bridge to Linux land. Without it, I’m certain I’d still be trapped in the walled garden and complaining about it. I was always aware (though recently more clearly) that most of the “Omarchy” experience is just a tasteful combination of existing software with usable defaults. It’s awesome and I’m grateful for it’s existence.

As I spend more time with Omarchy, it’s inevitable that I’ll peel back the layers and begin to understand how it all fits together. Instead of constantly talking about “Omarchy”, I can talk about the actual piece of software itself. Which leads me to….

Hyprland

Described as a “Modern compositor with the looks”, it’s a dynamic, fast, lightweight tiling Wayland compositor with smooth animations and as advertised…“the looks.” It’s a vast ecosystem of “hypr*” things like Hypridle, Hyprlock, Hyprsunset, Hyprpaper and on and on. In my opinion, this is ecosystem is responsible for most of the appeal of Omarchy.

Hyprland itself is less than 4 years old and, as far as I can tell, mostly built by one person Vaxry. He’s an unusual (or completely usual depending on your circle) fellow and his leadership is definitely felt. Here’s an example from the official Hyprland X account:

It’s an insane accomplishment and really impressive. For better or worse, there are times where his leadership is more obvious than usual. Take for example this lovely specimen:

Don’t take this as a complaint. Personally, I like the existence of this sort of thing as it’s a strong indicator that corporate money and influence has yet to infiltrate this awesome project. But, it’s worth being warned about. Especially for those coming from macOS.

Future

At this point, I fully expect some day in the future to venture off the Omarchy highway and into my own custom Hyprland/Arch config. Especially as I learn more about all the awesome/crazy stuff Omarchy left out of Hyprland (see Hall of Fame). But, until that day arrives, I’ll be riding happy on Omarchy.