{"slug": "omarchy", "name": "Omarchy", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "Opinionated Arch Linux distribution built around the Hyprland tiling window manager, created by DHH.", "recommenders": 27, "commenters": 46, "warners": 8, "score": 19.763, "rising": 10.42, "first": "2025-11-04", "latest": "2026-10-27", "why": "Liked as a polished, developer-focused Arch and Hyprland setup with good defaults out of the box, and several former macOS users say it is the first Linux distro that stuck for them.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 30, "neutral": 11, "compare": 1, "warn": 8}, "spark": [1, 2, 4, 0, 1, 0, 5, 2, 0, 10, 4, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Distro that stuck", "macOS alternative"], "caveat": "AI-generated code", "short_quote": "I just decided that I move to Omarchy 4 (basically Hyperland + QuickShell) + NVIDIA GPU, and I already was able to customize it more than my Mac in years.", "icon": true, "domain": "ssp.sh", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://omarchy.org", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Omarchy"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked as a polished, developer-focused Arch and Hyprland setup with good defaults out of the box", "cites": [{"id": 743550400, "item_id": 46471900, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471900", "by": "cryptica", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Omarchy (which is a fork of Arch Linux) is very developer-focused.", "excerpt": "I love the fact that there are different Linux distros optimized for every person. I started using Linux almost a decade ago; starting with Ubuntu, then I moved to Kubuntu and now I'm on Omarchy which is even more optimized for developers. I feel very comfortable recommending Linux to people now though I would recommend a different distro depending on who is asking. IMO Ubuntu is the simplest general-purpose one. Kub", "context": "Linux user for almost a decade", "use_case": "developer desktop", "switched_from": "Kubuntu", "story": "2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop"}, {"id": 779354480, "item_id": 48709655, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48709655", "by": "shivc", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "as much as I love Omarchy", "excerpt": "I understand what you mean and I've tried a few but haven't found something that's out of the box geared to dev the way Omarchy is, hence kept at it. Will keep an eye out in general for alternatives as much as I love Omarchy.", "context": "", "use_case": "development environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy is the best thing I've stopped thinking about. 1 year review blog"}, {"id": 797162288, "item_id": 49822643, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49822643", "by": "MadPony", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using it since the first release and its been my daily driver for the last few months.", "excerpt": "Omarchy's definitely been polarizing. I've been using it since the first release and its been my daily driver for the last few months. Folks can say what they want about DHH and argue that Omarchy is just dot files... but hot damn if it doesn't give me the breath of fresh air I needed from the Apple ecosystem. I've always loved Linux, but could never stick around. I didn't have the patience for the constant tweaking ", "context": "previously in the Apple ecosystem", "use_case": "daily driver Linux", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Why Omarchy Exists"}, {"id": 790849042, "item_id": 49428065, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49428065", "by": "dismalaf", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Currently using Omarchy on my laptop though which is a tad more exotic, it's Arch + Hyprland and is pretty polished for that stack", "excerpt": "Pretty much all of them. None require online accounts or anything like that. Browser choice is probably more important. For something that just works I recommend Fedora or Ubuntu. It's what I'd put on my mom or wife's PC. Currently using Omarchy on my laptop though which is a tad more exotic, it's Arch + Hyprland and is pretty polished for that stack (at least the current version, 4.0) but still a tiny bit of jank.", "context": "", "use_case": "laptop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "MS Paint and Photos inivisibly watermark even locally generated output with GUID"}]}, {"text": ", and several former macOS users say it is the first Linux distro that stuck for them.", "cites": [{"id": 792715296, "item_id": 49544706, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544706", "by": "sergiotapia", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "this is the first linux os that stuck with me. I've been using it as my primary driver for months now.", "excerpt": "I think there's been dramatically more disrespect on DHH and the omarchy maintainers. Straight up calling these people \"fascists\", quite sickening behavior. I've been using Linux on and off since Ubuntu 7.10 gutsy gibbon, then moved to linux mint, then arch, then random distros to try, this is the first linux os that stuck with me. I've been using it as my primary driver for months now. Don't miss windows or mac. The", "context": "long-time Linux user", "use_case": "primary desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy Histerya"}, {"id": 792022544, "item_id": 49501409, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49501409", "by": "vinniepukh", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Omarchy is the first distro that \"stuck\". I've been using it on my desktop for a year now.", "excerpt": "anecdotal and fwiw, Omarchy is the first distro that \"stuck\". I've been using it on my desktop for a year now. I use it for personal projects and light gaming via Steam. Personal MacBook is only used when I want to compute on the couch. Work computer is also a MacBook. But everything else, Omarchy desktop. Previous attempts with Ubuntu and PopOS! never stuck.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop, personal projects, gaming", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 790245232, "item_id": 49390327, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390327", "by": "software_writer", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switching to Omarchy was one of the best decisions I made last year that improved my everyday computing experience so much", "excerpt": "Switching to Omarchy was one of the best decisions I made last year that improved my everyday computing experience so much, and introduced me to so many amazing tools like neovim, tmux, tiling window managers, Arch Linux, and countless TUIs.. Haven't touched my old MacBook this year at all. If you're in the market for a new laptop / operating system, I highly recommend you give it a try.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily desktop OS", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}, {"id": 745101904, "item_id": 46568869, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46568869", "by": "articsputnik", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I was mostly using the terminal and am therefore super happy with my choice now.", "excerpt": "I moved from 15 years of macOS to Linux (Omarchy in my case). I was mostly using the terminal and am therefore super happy with my choice now. I wrote more at https://www.ssp.sh/blog/macbook-to-arch-linux-omarchy/, in case of interest.", "context": "15 years on macOS, mostly terminal user", "use_case": "daily desktop OS", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great"}]}, {"text": " The most common worries are AI-generated code with security slips", "cites": [{"id": 792007456, "item_id": 49500466, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500466", "by": "concinds", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Don't use vibecoded distros.", "excerpt": "A few days ago someone found they were flowing USB descriptors straight into the shell. https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/commit/9285b19d6a72eba3df8537d62a4cd5506a803d89 Don't use vibecoded distros. It doesn't matter whether they fix this or that, or whether you care about a particular vuln. This is not sensible. It's why you switched away from Windows in the first place, remember?", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 782836608, "item_id": 48927288, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48927288", "by": "grepex", "date": "2026-07-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Omarchy 4 30k lines of ai generated code", "excerpt": "Respectfully, that's a bit of a stretch. Impaired human memory and increased risk taking are coefficients that would impact far more industries than software. I think the notion is that software, in particular, seems buggier. IF these side effects of repeated COVID infection have anything to do with software bugs, I would think it's contribution would be dramatically smaller than say LLM assisted coding, rapid mergin", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is it just me, or is software buggier across the board?"}, {"id": 797345328, "item_id": 49834083, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49834083", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I don't like the AI slop, so using AI slop generated distributions, is already an instant nope for me.", "excerpt": "I can't help but shake off the feeling that too much about Omarchy is not from an objective analysis, but promo-bias. I noticed this on distrowatch recently, but also on the ruby/rails reddit thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/rails/comments/1won8aq/post_dhh_rails/ Some of the pro-Omarchy comments are strange. Now - personally I have not tried Omarchy, because I have no need for it. I compile about 99% of what I d", "context": "builds from source, has not tried it", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why Omarchy Exists"}]}, {"text": " and unease about the project lead's politics, with others noting bloat and gaming problems.", "cites": [{"id": 761118656, "item_id": 47569916, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47569916", "by": "kennywinker", "date": "2026-03-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love omarchy", "excerpt": "The omarchy statement is just DHH dropping the r-word in a DM. I love omarchy, but manchild/edgelord behaviour from the lead doesn\u2019t exactly instill confidence.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "DoesItAgeVerify: The age verification status of Open Source Operating Systems"}, {"id": 794610576, "item_id": 49663161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49663161", "by": "tfrancisl", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "We should be aware of the motivations of the software we use.", "excerpt": "If you think him getting money from Jack Dorsey and Michael Dell has no political implications, I have a bridge in Brooklyn and a tower in Paris to sell you. This isn't conspiracy theory, this is following incentives. We should be aware of the motivations of the software we use. This is why we've had licensing fights for decades.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy Is a Power Grab"}, {"id": 733294608, "item_id": 45830913, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45830913", "by": "samtheDamned", "date": "2025-11-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Omarchy, in isolation, is just a bloated arch install with thrown together scripts, zoom, spotify, and google apps preinstalled.", "excerpt": "This comment sums up my own feelings towards this concisely : > This is not a \u201cI do not like this distribution\u201d kind of argument. > This is a \u201cthe people you are sending my money to want me and my friends dead or deported\u201d kind of argument. from: https://community.frame.work/t/framework-supporting-far-right-racists/75986/2 Beyond the disappointment I have in framework for giving my money to someone so clearly off the", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stepping Down as Framework Linux Community Ambassadors"}, {"id": 750798273, "item_id": 46924892, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46924892", "by": "rokybeast", "date": "2026-02-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used Omarchy, and I had to remove a lot of binaries, AURs, etc.", "excerpt": "I think this operating system makes the use of Arch Linux easier, and if you stop and yell at the screen saying 'Omarchy', then please do consider the amount of bloatware/software not needed for you, is installed. I used Omarchy, and I had to remove a lot of binaries, AURs, etc. Then comes this OS, and when my friend recommended it, and he said \"which doesn't install anything much, and only the required binaries, and", "context": "", "use_case": "Arch Linux setup", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: The Codeverse Hub Linux"}, {"id": 791173760, "item_id": 49448360, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49448360", "by": "troupo", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "many Steam games were dog slow or unplayable in Omarchy", "excerpt": "> It\u2019s a really strong UX that\u2019s rapidly improving without a profit motive and people are excited about it. /r/unixporn is all about that. They don't get a $10 million fund though. > Closest thing to the \u201cit just works\u201d experience that Mac was always known for and it runs great on older hardware. Ubuntu. Debian. Fedora especiall via Bazzite. Arch via CachyOS. > Small example, running Zoom on i3 caused a tile cascade ", "context": "", "use_case": "gaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy development practices lead to predictable security issues"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Distro that stuck", "summary": "Several long-time users say it is the first Linux distro they kept as a daily driver.", "quotes": [{"id": 792715296, "item_id": 49544706, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544706", "by": "sergiotapia", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "this is the first linux os that stuck with me. I've been using it as my primary driver for months now.", "excerpt": "I think there's been dramatically more disrespect on DHH and the omarchy maintainers. Straight up calling these people \"fascists\", quite sickening behavior. I've been using Linux on and off since Ubuntu 7.10 gutsy gibbon, then moved to linux mint, then arch, then random distros to try, this is the first linux os that stuck with me. I've been using it as my primary driver for months now. Don't miss windows or mac. The", "context": "long-time Linux user", "use_case": "primary desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy Histerya"}, {"id": 792022544, "item_id": 49501409, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49501409", "by": "vinniepukh", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Omarchy is the first distro that \"stuck\". I've been using it on my desktop for a year now.", "excerpt": "anecdotal and fwiw, Omarchy is the first distro that \"stuck\". I've been using it on my desktop for a year now. I use it for personal projects and light gaming via Steam. Personal MacBook is only used when I want to compute on the couch. Work computer is also a MacBook. But everything else, Omarchy desktop. Previous attempts with Ubuntu and PopOS! never stuck.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop, personal projects, gaming", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 797162288, "item_id": 49822643, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49822643", "by": "MadPony", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using it since the first release and its been my daily driver for the last few months.", "excerpt": "Omarchy's definitely been polarizing. I've been using it since the first release and its been my daily driver for the last few months. Folks can say what they want about DHH and argue that Omarchy is just dot files... but hot damn if it doesn't give me the breath of fresh air I needed from the Apple ecosystem. I've always loved Linux, but could never stick around. I didn't have the patience for the constant tweaking ", "context": "previously in the Apple ecosystem", "use_case": "daily driver Linux", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Why Omarchy Exists"}]}, {"label": "macOS alternative", "summary": "Former Mac users report a more productive, more enjoyable setup and recommend trying it.", "quotes": [{"id": 790245232, "item_id": 49390327, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390327", "by": "software_writer", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switching to Omarchy was one of the best decisions I made last year that improved my everyday computing experience so much", "excerpt": "Switching to Omarchy was one of the best decisions I made last year that improved my everyday computing experience so much, and introduced me to so many amazing tools like neovim, tmux, tiling window managers, Arch Linux, and countless TUIs.. Haven't touched my old MacBook this year at all. If you're in the market for a new laptop / operating system, I highly recommend you give it a try.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily desktop OS", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}, {"id": 745252944, "item_id": 46578309, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46578309", "by": "desireco42", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I realized that I am more productive there in real sense and experience is more delightful.", "excerpt": "First you don't have to dump anything to use Linux. The whole thing should not be as antogonistic. I switched to Linux, Arch btw, Omarchy, sometime last year when it was announced. I installed it on my old Thinkpad and it worked wonderfully, for most part. I realized that I am more productive there in real sense and experience is more delightful. When I would go back to Mac, I would realize I need several clicks to a", "context": "", "use_case": "daily development machine", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too"}, {"id": 790242592, "item_id": 49390162, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390162", "by": "euazOn", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I highly encourage anyone e.g. on MacOS to get a cheap laptop and give Omarchy a try.", "excerpt": "I highly encourage anyone e.g. on MacOS to get a cheap laptop and give Omarchy a try. My feeling of using this system compared to MacOS is a whole another level. And now one of the promises of Omarchy Quattro is that AI agents will help you tweak it to your liking very easily, avoiding having to spend dozens of hours ricing your system.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}]}, {"label": "Developer defaults", "summary": "Seen as developer-focused, with sensible conventions out of the box and no need for hours of setup.", "quotes": [{"id": 743550400, "item_id": 46471900, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471900", "by": "cryptica", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Omarchy (which is a fork of Arch Linux) is very developer-focused.", "excerpt": "I love the fact that there are different Linux distros optimized for every person. I started using Linux almost a decade ago; starting with Ubuntu, then I moved to Kubuntu and now I'm on Omarchy which is even more optimized for developers. I feel very comfortable recommending Linux to people now though I would recommend a different distro depending on who is asking. IMO Ubuntu is the simplest general-purpose one. Kub", "context": "Linux user for almost a decade", "use_case": "developer desktop", "switched_from": "Kubuntu", "story": "2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop"}, {"id": 779354480, "item_id": 48709655, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48709655", "by": "shivc", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "as much as I love Omarchy", "excerpt": "I understand what you mean and I've tried a few but haven't found something that's out of the box geared to dev the way Omarchy is, hence kept at it. Will keep an eye out in general for alternatives as much as I love Omarchy.", "context": "", "use_case": "development environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy is the best thing I've stopped thinking about. 1 year review blog"}, {"id": 772144720, "item_id": 48259045, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48259045", "by": "magiclaw", "date": "2026-05-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I installed Omarchy, and I like it.", "excerpt": "\"if you're new to Linux, skip omarchy...\" I've been using linux for 20+ years. I used to spend way too much time ricing my system when I was young. I don't have time for that now. I installed Omarchy, and I like it. \"... install a real distribution - not some guy's personal dotfiles.\" \"the entire 'omarchy distribution' amounts to little more than Arch linux\" Your own statements contradict each other.", "context": "Linux user for 20+ years", "use_case": "daily Linux desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your Dotfiles Are Not a Distro"}]}, {"label": "Gaming works", "summary": "Some users run Steam games on it, with most titles working.", "quotes": [{"id": 778132992, "item_id": 48633312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48633312", "by": "sergiotapia", "date": "2026-06-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've now been using Omarchy as my operating system for months now. Gaming just works on Linux now.", "excerpt": "Thanks to Valve, I've now been using Omarchy as my operating system for months now. Gaming just works on Linux now. It's crazy, used to be a pipe dream! I'm buying the Steam Machine as well to game on the couch. Give me 4k 60fps and that's all I need. The Steam Controller is also fantastic shape on my hands, very comfortable.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily OS and gaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Steam Machine game testing"}, {"id": 767599824, "item_id": 47974989, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47974989", "by": "syabro", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Omarchy from Mac and it's not perfect but I feel that I like it", "excerpt": "I actually impressed how DHH makes the things work. I switched to Omarchy from Mac and it's not perfect but I feel that I like it. Probably would get an XPS. Now on x7950x/4080 - gaming works almost perfectly. 99% of the games \"just work\" including AAA tiles.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily driver, gaming", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Year of the Linux Laptop: Omarchy on XPS"}, {"id": 792022544, "item_id": 49501409, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49501409", "by": "vinniepukh", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Omarchy is the first distro that \"stuck\". I've been using it on my desktop for a year now.", "excerpt": "anecdotal and fwiw, Omarchy is the first distro that \"stuck\". I've been using it on my desktop for a year now. I use it for personal projects and light gaming via Steam. Personal MacBook is only used when I want to compute on the couch. Work computer is also a MacBook. But everything else, Omarchy desktop. Previous attempts with Ubuntu and PopOS! never stuck.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop, personal projects, gaming", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}]}, {"label": "Easy customization", "summary": "Users find it easy to customize, including with AI agents.", "quotes": [{"id": 790942736, "item_id": 49433921, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49433921", "by": "xiphias2", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I just decided that I move to Omarchy 4 (basically Hyperland + QuickShell) + NVIDIA GPU, and I already was able to customize it more than my Mac in years.", "excerpt": "Apple still has the best hardware so I moved to it for the last few years, but the closed software ecosystem is terrible for taking advantage of it. I wasn't able to debug network errors (restartin my Mac worked), Metal was missing low level disassembly / debugging tools (there is some hard to use UI), but the worst thing was the inflexible windowing system. Even getting all the window handles on all screens/desktops", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra"}, {"id": 790274240, "item_id": 49392140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49392140", "by": "jsuth", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I disliked many of the defaults. But it's quite easy to use an agent to customize everything to your liking.", "excerpt": "I think tiling makes much less sense on a laptop and more sense when you use a large display. I had a similar experience initially. I disliked many of the defaults. But it's quite easy to use an agent to customize everything to your liking. And I haven't really run into a situation where I couldn't accomplish what I wanted. I'm still deciding how I feel about hyprland. I use a unique hyperkey shortcut to focus each a", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux desktop setup", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}, {"id": 790242592, "item_id": 49390162, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390162", "by": "euazOn", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I highly encourage anyone e.g. on MacOS to get a cheap laptop and give Omarchy a try.", "excerpt": "I highly encourage anyone e.g. on MacOS to get a cheap laptop and give Omarchy a try. My feeling of using this system compared to MacOS is a whole another level. And now one of the promises of Omarchy Quattro is that AI agents will help you tweak it to your liking very easily, avoiding having to spend dozens of hours ricing your system.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}]}, {"label": "Polished look", "summary": "Praised for a polished Hyprland setup, TUI aesthetic, and extras beyond a dotfiles repo.", "quotes": [{"id": 790849042, "item_id": 49428065, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49428065", "by": "dismalaf", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Currently using Omarchy on my laptop though which is a tad more exotic, it's Arch + Hyprland and is pretty polished for that stack", "excerpt": "Pretty much all of them. None require online accounts or anything like that. Browser choice is probably more important. For something that just works I recommend Fedora or Ubuntu. It's what I'd put on my mom or wife's PC. Currently using Omarchy on my laptop though which is a tad more exotic, it's Arch + Hyprland and is pretty polished for that stack (at least the current version, 4.0) but still a tiny bit of jank.", "context": "", "use_case": "laptop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "MS Paint and Photos inivisibly watermark even locally generated output with GUID"}, {"id": 733725728, "item_id": 45857858, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45857858", "by": "EgregiousCube", "date": "2025-11-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Check out Omarchy's desktop distro if you want more of that aesthetic throughout your OS, it does a good job", "excerpt": "I really like the new wave of TUI aesthetic that's been worming its way into Linux user interfaces lately. Check out Omarchy's desktop distro if you want more of that aesthetic throughout your OS, it does a good job if that's the look and feel you want.", "context": "", "use_case": "TUI-style desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Btop: A better modern alternative of htop with a gamified interface"}, {"id": 790261009, "item_id": 49391313, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49391313", "by": "sroerick", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I was very impressed with the demo video.", "excerpt": "Cool! I used Larbs.xyz for a while. I love a good dotfiles repo. I guess I think there's a lot more in Omarchy than a dotfiles repo, I was very impressed with the demo video. Even just creating the menu and updating system is non-trivial. Mirroring the entire distro through Cloudflare seems significant also. I've not seen those in another dotfiles project.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "AI-generated code", "summary": "Critics distrust its AI-assisted code and point to a shell-injection bug from USB descriptors.", "quotes": [{"id": 792007456, "item_id": 49500466, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500466", "by": "concinds", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Don't use vibecoded distros.", "excerpt": "A few days ago someone found they were flowing USB descriptors straight into the shell. https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/commit/9285b19d6a72eba3df8537d62a4cd5506a803d89 Don't use vibecoded distros. It doesn't matter whether they fix this or that, or whether you care about a particular vuln. This is not sensible. It's why you switched away from Windows in the first place, remember?", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 782836608, "item_id": 48927288, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48927288", "by": "grepex", "date": "2026-07-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Omarchy 4 30k lines of ai generated code", "excerpt": "Respectfully, that's a bit of a stretch. Impaired human memory and increased risk taking are coefficients that would impact far more industries than software. I think the notion is that software, in particular, seems buggier. IF these side effects of repeated COVID infection have anything to do with software bugs, I would think it's contribution would be dramatically smaller than say LLM assisted coding, rapid mergin", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is it just me, or is software buggier across the board?"}, {"id": 797345328, "item_id": 49834083, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49834083", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I don't like the AI slop, so using AI slop generated distributions, is already an instant nope for me.", "excerpt": "I can't help but shake off the feeling that too much about Omarchy is not from an objective analysis, but promo-bias. I noticed this on distrowatch recently, but also on the ruby/rails reddit thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/rails/comments/1won8aq/post_dhh_rails/ Some of the pro-Omarchy comments are strange. Now - personally I have not tried Omarchy, because I have no need for it. I compile about 99% of what I d", "context": "builds from source, has not tried it", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why Omarchy Exists"}]}, {"label": "Creator politics", "summary": "Some commenters are uneasy about the lead developer's behavior, politics, and funding.", "quotes": [{"id": 761118656, "item_id": 47569916, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47569916", "by": "kennywinker", "date": "2026-03-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love omarchy", "excerpt": "The omarchy statement is just DHH dropping the r-word in a DM. I love omarchy, but manchild/edgelord behaviour from the lead doesn\u2019t exactly instill confidence.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "DoesItAgeVerify: The age verification status of Open Source Operating Systems"}, {"id": 794610576, "item_id": 49663161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49663161", "by": "tfrancisl", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "We should be aware of the motivations of the software we use.", "excerpt": "If you think him getting money from Jack Dorsey and Michael Dell has no political implications, I have a bridge in Brooklyn and a tower in Paris to sell you. This isn't conspiracy theory, this is following incentives. We should be aware of the motivations of the software we use. This is why we've had licensing fights for decades.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy Is a Power Grab"}, {"id": 733294608, "item_id": 45830913, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45830913", "by": "samtheDamned", "date": "2025-11-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Omarchy, in isolation, is just a bloated arch install with thrown together scripts, zoom, spotify, and google apps preinstalled.", "excerpt": "This comment sums up my own feelings towards this concisely : > This is not a \u201cI do not like this distribution\u201d kind of argument. > This is a \u201cthe people you are sending my money to want me and my friends dead or deported\u201d kind of argument. from: https://community.frame.work/t/framework-supporting-far-right-racists/75986/2 Beyond the disappointment I have in framework for giving my money to someone so clearly off the", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stepping Down as Framework Linux Community Ambassadors"}]}, {"label": "Bloat", "summary": "Ships many preinstalled apps and packages that some users had to remove.", "quotes": [{"id": 750798273, "item_id": 46924892, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46924892", "by": "rokybeast", "date": "2026-02-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used Omarchy, and I had to remove a lot of binaries, AURs, etc.", "excerpt": "I think this operating system makes the use of Arch Linux easier, and if you stop and yell at the screen saying 'Omarchy', then please do consider the amount of bloatware/software not needed for you, is installed. I used Omarchy, and I had to remove a lot of binaries, AURs, etc. Then comes this OS, and when my friend recommended it, and he said \"which doesn't install anything much, and only the required binaries, and", "context": "", "use_case": "Arch Linux setup", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: The Codeverse Hub Linux"}, {"id": 733294608, "item_id": 45830913, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45830913", "by": "samtheDamned", "date": "2025-11-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Omarchy, in isolation, is just a bloated arch install with thrown together scripts, zoom, spotify, and google apps preinstalled.", "excerpt": "This comment sums up my own feelings towards this concisely : > This is not a \u201cI do not like this distribution\u201d kind of argument. > This is a \u201cthe people you are sending my money to want me and my friends dead or deported\u201d kind of argument. from: https://community.frame.work/t/framework-supporting-far-right-racists/75986/2 Beyond the disappointment I have in framework for giving my money to someone so clearly off the", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stepping Down as Framework Linux Community Ambassadors"}]}, {"label": "Gaming performance", "summary": "One user found many Steam games slow or unplayable until switching to CachyOS.", "quotes": [{"id": 791173760, "item_id": 49448360, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49448360", "by": "troupo", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "many Steam games were dog slow or unplayable in Omarchy", "excerpt": "> It\u2019s a really strong UX that\u2019s rapidly improving without a profit motive and people are excited about it. /r/unixporn is all about that. They don't get a $10 million fund though. > Closest thing to the \u201cit just works\u201d experience that Mac was always known for and it runs great on older hardware. Ubuntu. Debian. Fedora especiall via Bazzite. Arch via CachyOS. > Small example, running Zoom on i3 caused a tile cascade ", "context": "", "use_case": "gaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy development practices lead to predictable security issues"}, {"id": 792013424, "item_id": 49500839, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500839", "by": "pacificat0r", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "A few months since I de-omarchyfied the system and went straight back to arch.", "excerpt": "I got here because it was the first time I saw a tiling window manager on an Omarchy video. I was on windows my entire life, so when i saw it and how bad windows got, I decided to give it a try. A few months since I de-omarchyfied the system and went straight back to arch. And now still on it. I should have gone with something like cachyos as games are important to me, but I think at the time hyperland wasn't an opti", "context": "longtime Windows user", "use_case": "tiling window manager desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}]}, {"label": "Rough edges", "summary": "Users report some jank, such as Bluetooth audio switching and dictation problems.", "quotes": [{"id": 790849042, "item_id": 49428065, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49428065", "by": "dismalaf", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Currently using Omarchy on my laptop though which is a tad more exotic, it's Arch + Hyprland and is pretty polished for that stack", "excerpt": "Pretty much all of them. None require online accounts or anything like that. Browser choice is probably more important. For something that just works I recommend Fedora or Ubuntu. It's what I'd put on my mom or wife's PC. Currently using Omarchy on my laptop though which is a tad more exotic, it's Arch + Hyprland and is pretty polished for that stack (at least the current version, 4.0) but still a tiny bit of jank.", "context": "", "use_case": "laptop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "MS Paint and Photos inivisibly watermark even locally generated output with GUID"}, {"id": 745122560, "item_id": 46570160, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46570160", "by": "desireco42", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Now I can play and work on a same machine for the first time in like 15+ years", "excerpt": "I installed Omarchy last year when it come out (Arch distro for devs) on laptop and December I installed it on desktop machine, the powerful one. Now I can play and work on a same machine for the first time in like 15+ years since I switched to Mac so I can work. It isn't smooth sailing, I have bluetooth speakers and headphones, switching is not easy experience. Vibe coding, audio dictation works on Thinkpad which is", "context": "", "use_case": "work and gaming", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great"}, {"id": 767599824, "item_id": 47974989, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47974989", "by": "syabro", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Omarchy from Mac and it's not perfect but I feel that I like it", "excerpt": "I actually impressed how DHH makes the things work. I switched to Omarchy from Mac and it's not perfect but I feel that I like it. Probably would get an XPS. Now on x7950x/4080 - gaming works almost perfectly. 99% of the games \"just work\" including AAA tiles.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily driver, gaming", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Year of the Linux Laptop: Omarchy on XPS"}]}], "who": [{"by": "dilipm1", "context": "tried it before judging", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49853891", "date": "2026-09-26"}, {"by": "MadPony", "context": "previously in the Apple ecosystem", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49822643", "date": "2026-09-23"}, {"by": "sergiotapia", "context": "long-time Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544706", "date": "2026-09-03"}, {"by": "Cakez0r", "context": "not young; former Fedora user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390654", "date": "2026-08-21"}, {"by": "magiclaw", "context": "Linux user for 20+ years", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48259045", "date": "2026-05-24"}, {"by": "software_writer", "context": "developer, previously Apple user for a decade", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47975032", "date": "2026-05-01"}, {"by": "articsputnik", "context": "15 years on macOS, mostly terminal user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46568869", "date": "2026-01-10"}, {"by": "cryptica", "context": "Linux user for almost a decade", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471900", "date": "2026-01-02"}], "tags": ["for developers", "for macOS switchers", "for terminal users", "for Linux gaming", "for learning Arch setups"], "use_cases": ["linux desktop", "desktop os", "daily desktop os", "linux desktop setup", "daily linux desktop", "development os"], "compared": [{"slug": "macos", "name": "macOS", "co": 8, "switched_from": 9, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "ubuntu", "name": "Ubuntu", "co": 7, "switched_from": 2, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "cachyos", "name": "CachyOS", "co": 6, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "arch-linux", "name": "Arch Linux", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "fedora", "name": "Fedora", "co": 4, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "debian", "name": "Debian", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "hyprland", "name": "Hyprland", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "nixos", "name": "NixOS", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390132", "title": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M", "mentions": 8}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49499854", "title": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49822122", "title": "Why Omarchy Exists", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49825642", "title": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48257612", "title": "Your Dotfiles Are Not a Distro", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49447682", "title": "Omarchy development practices lead to predictable security issues", "mentions": 2}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 4}, "2026-02": {"warn": 1}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 2}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-07": {"warn": 1}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 10, "compare": 1, "neutral": 3, "warn": 3}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 3, "warn": 2}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804178305, "item_id": 50261144, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50261144", "by": "arjie", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I suddenly understand why Omarchy is compelling to so many people.", "excerpt": "Haha this is true but I have rewritten many things now. I use so much of a custom software stack. You can go down to primitives you like. Most of the software I use is custom now but not in like a deep way. E.g. it turns out that browser engines are blazing fast. So what\u2019s slow? The chrome around it, the extensions. These things I just rewrite. It turns out that MacOS GUI primitives are also really fast. It\u2019s just th", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible"}, {"id": 803950914, "item_id": 50246932, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50246932", "by": "codebolt", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "playing around with OpenCode on Omarchy", "excerpt": "I was playing around with OpenCode on Omarchy over the weekend, working on my Android app, and was struggling to spend a single dollar with DeepSeek. The quality difference from the frontier models I use at work was hardly noticeable (where I typically rack up at least a few hundred dollars per month).", "context": "", "use_case": "development OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anthropic S-1"}, {"id": 802692001, "item_id": 50168250, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50168250", "by": "Nerdrotic", "date": "2026-10-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I decided to give Omarchy a spin and was impressed", "excerpt": "I've spent the last few years deep diving Nix / NixOS and I can definitely say that you do not want to run the unstable channel nor using flakes. Just stick with stable and if you must; add very limited unstable packages via flake configuration. Keep 99.99% on stable and do not use the latest Linux kernel either. Using unstable will result in breaking changes giving you a headache. Trying to run a bleeding edge moder", "context": "", "use_case": "laptop and desktop workstation OS", "switched_from": "NixOS", "story": "NixOS is making me less afraid"}, {"id": 797662256, "item_id": 49853891, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49853891", "by": "dilipm1", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I installed Omarchy on my Thinkpad T14 T1 Gen 2021 laptop and maaan I love this OS.", "excerpt": "I tired Omarchy before I judge it. Also listened to the 5 hours podcast in a period of 10 days, consuming it each day on the way to work. Skipped some parts. So, I installed Omarchy on my Thinkpad T14 T1 Gen 2021 laptop and maaan I love this OS. I read that article you were mentioning about wolves and hobos! All I understood was this so called guy named DHH loves Copenhagen and wants that city no to smell like shit, ", "context": "tried it before judging", "use_case": "Linux desktop on laptop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why Omarchy Exists"}, {"id": 797345328, "item_id": 49834083, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49834083", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I don't like the AI slop, so using AI slop generated distributions, is already an instant nope for me.", "excerpt": "I can't help but shake off the feeling that too much about Omarchy is not from an objective analysis, but promo-bias. I noticed this on distrowatch recently, but also on the ruby/rails reddit thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/rails/comments/1won8aq/post_dhh_rails/ Some of the pro-Omarchy comments are strange. Now - personally I have not tried Omarchy, because I have no need for it. I compile about 99% of what I d", "context": "builds from source, has not tried it", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why Omarchy Exists"}, {"id": 797303761, "item_id": 49831485, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49831485", "by": "c7b", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I personally don't use Omarchy for a variety of reasons, but I'd love to be able to install its launcher and keyboard integrations.", "excerpt": "Two projects that I found brought nice, more incremental changes to the desktop were COSMIC and Omarchy. Both use tiling, COSMIC's mixed tiling+floating workflow is amazing and my new daily driver. I personally don't use Omarchy for a variety of reasons, but I'd love to be able to install its launcher and keyboard integrations.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797244883, "item_id": 49827805, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827805", "by": "fschuett", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "at least Omarchy has a target audience", "excerpt": "The issue with KDE is not the \"UX\", the issue is the crashiness and jank, which is an issue of C++ and the OOP-ness of Qt, respectively and no amount of philosophizing will fix that. Users can excuse high memory usage, users can excuse low FPS, users cannot excuse jank and crashes. It is very hard to pin down the problems with Qt because on the one hand you can produce well-working UIs with QML if you are committed t", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797237968, "item_id": 49827373, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827373", "by": "k_bx", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love the future shaped by two things: Omarchy and Pop!_OS.", "excerpt": "I love the future shaped by two things: Omarchy and Pop!_OS. Both give two different worlds, one serves classic Win/MacOS style users while another is new-age AI-native system.", "context": "", "use_case": "AI-native desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797162288, "item_id": 49822643, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49822643", "by": "MadPony", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using it since the first release and its been my daily driver for the last few months.", "excerpt": "Omarchy's definitely been polarizing. I've been using it since the first release and its been my daily driver for the last few months. Folks can say what they want about DHH and argue that Omarchy is just dot files... but hot damn if it doesn't give me the breath of fresh air I needed from the Apple ecosystem. I've always loved Linux, but could never stick around. I didn't have the patience for the constant tweaking ", "context": "previously in the Apple ecosystem", "use_case": "daily driver Linux", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Why Omarchy Exists"}, {"id": 794610576, "item_id": 49663161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49663161", "by": "tfrancisl", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "We should be aware of the motivations of the software we use.", "excerpt": "If you think him getting money from Jack Dorsey and Michael Dell has no political implications, I have a bridge in Brooklyn and a tower in Paris to sell you. This isn't conspiracy theory, this is following incentives. We should be aware of the motivations of the software we use. This is why we've had licensing fights for decades.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy Is a Power Grab"}, {"id": 793664449, "item_id": 49604028, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49604028", "by": "IslandRebel", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "There was a lot of hype around Omarchy", "excerpt": "The Linux community needs to embrace being something for the enthusiast. If you look at things that have got people interested in Linux. It wasn't just that Windows 11 is awful, because a lot of people just install Windows 11 LTSC and call it a day. Hyprland was/is something that excites people. There was a lot of hype around Omarchy (I don't care about the guys' politics, and please don't bring it up; I find the dis", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers"}, {"id": 792715296, "item_id": 49544706, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544706", "by": "sergiotapia", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "this is the first linux os that stuck with me. I've been using it as my primary driver for months now.", "excerpt": "I think there's been dramatically more disrespect on DHH and the omarchy maintainers. Straight up calling these people \"fascists\", quite sickening behavior. I've been using Linux on and off since Ubuntu 7.10 gutsy gibbon, then moved to linux mint, then arch, then random distros to try, this is the first linux os that stuck with me. I've been using it as my primary driver for months now. Don't miss windows or mac. The", "context": "long-time Linux user", "use_case": "primary desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy Histerya"}, {"id": 792022544, "item_id": 49501409, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49501409", "by": "vinniepukh", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Omarchy is the first distro that \"stuck\". I've been using it on my desktop for a year now.", "excerpt": "anecdotal and fwiw, Omarchy is the first distro that \"stuck\". I've been using it on my desktop for a year now. I use it for personal projects and light gaming via Steam. Personal MacBook is only used when I want to compute on the couch. Work computer is also a MacBook. But everything else, Omarchy desktop. Previous attempts with Ubuntu and PopOS! never stuck.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop, personal projects, gaming", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 792013424, "item_id": 49500839, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500839", "by": "pacificat0r", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "A few months since I de-omarchyfied the system and went straight back to arch.", "excerpt": "I got here because it was the first time I saw a tiling window manager on an Omarchy video. I was on windows my entire life, so when i saw it and how bad windows got, I decided to give it a try. A few months since I de-omarchyfied the system and went straight back to arch. And now still on it. I should have gone with something like cachyos as games are important to me, but I think at the time hyperland wasn't an opti", "context": "longtime Windows user", "use_case": "tiling window manager desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 792007456, "item_id": 49500466, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500466", "by": "concinds", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Don't use vibecoded distros.", "excerpt": "A few days ago someone found they were flowing USB descriptors straight into the shell. https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/commit/9285b19d6a72eba3df8537d62a4cd5506a803d89 Don't use vibecoded distros. It doesn't matter whether they fix this or that, or whether you care about a particular vuln. This is not sensible. It's why you switched away from Windows in the first place, remember?", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 792006592, "item_id": 49500412, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500412", "by": "PaulHoule", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I hate to be defending Omarchy but I think for the modern desktop OS like Linux or Windows or Mac OS, \"root\" is not what it used to be.", "excerpt": "I hate to be defending Omarchy but I think for the modern desktop OS like Linux or Windows or Mac OS, \"root\" is not what it used to be. Like if I have something on my dev machines which is important from an enterprise perspective it is the credentials that I use to check things into the git repository or log into the postgresql database that are in some file or keyring or the credentials I used to log into some corpo", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 791900369, "item_id": 49493773, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49493773", "by": "zackb", "date": "2026-08-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "While I'm not a fan of Omarchy, I LOVE what it is doing.", "excerpt": "This is a very good point and I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. I considered contributing to KDE Connect but decided against it for many reasons: 1. This would be a major subsystem added to KDE Connect and I have no history with the project. 2. The KDE Connect roadmap explicitly lists iMessage / SMS support as \"Won't Implement\" 3. My project requires a browser extension and mail extension, I can't imagine I ha", "context": "", "use_case": "custom Linux desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux"}, {"id": 791301443, "item_id": 49456340, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49456340", "by": "runjake", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Fedora (usually KDE) and Omarchy for desktops", "excerpt": "I don't. Ubuntu forcing snap and other non-standard junk on server was the last straw. I've moved to Debian for servers and Fedora (usually KDE) and Omarchy for desktops. Fedora seems much higher quality than Ubuntu these days and faster! dnf seems comparatively slow compared to apt, but that's the least of my worries.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ask HN: Why do you use Ubuntu?"}, {"id": 791176064, "item_id": 49448504, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49448504", "by": "kristofferR", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Omarchy 4.0 from CachyOS and is having an amazing experience so far", "excerpt": "Yeah, this is so annoying. I switched to Omarchy 4.0 from CachyOS and is having an amazing experience so far, barely know anything about DHH other than that he made Rails, and now everybody is calling me a racist sympathizer.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "CachyOS", "story": "Omarchy development practices lead to predictable security issues"}, {"id": 791173760, "item_id": 49448360, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49448360", "by": "troupo", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "many Steam games were dog slow or unplayable in Omarchy", "excerpt": "> It\u2019s a really strong UX that\u2019s rapidly improving without a profit motive and people are excited about it. /r/unixporn is all about that. They don't get a $10 million fund though. > Closest thing to the \u201cit just works\u201d experience that Mac was always known for and it runs great on older hardware. Ubuntu. Debian. Fedora especiall via Bazzite. Arch via CachyOS. > Small example, running Zoom on i3 caused a tile cascade ", "context": "", "use_case": "gaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy development practices lead to predictable security issues"}, {"id": 790950448, "item_id": 49434403, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49434403", "by": "xiphias2", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Just Beelink, but it doesn't matter at all.", "excerpt": "Just Beelink, but it doesn't matter at all. I ordered an ASUS Zephyrus G16 with 5090 NVIDIA card + 1.9kg (quite an overkill, and I know that I will have to limit power output), but hasn't arrived yet. But what's fun is that I love QML+QuickShell with its hot reloading, Hyprland with its Lua support. With AI nowdays it's just so easy to do deep UI changes that wasn't possible a year ago.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra"}, {"id": 790942736, "item_id": 49433921, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49433921", "by": "xiphias2", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I just decided that I move to Omarchy 4 (basically Hyperland + QuickShell) + NVIDIA GPU, and I already was able to customize it more than my Mac in years.", "excerpt": "Apple still has the best hardware so I moved to it for the last few years, but the closed software ecosystem is terrible for taking advantage of it. I wasn't able to debug network errors (restartin my Mac worked), Metal was missing low level disassembly / debugging tools (there is some hard to use UI), but the worst thing was the inflexible windowing system. Even getting all the window handles on all screens/desktops", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra"}, {"id": 790849042, "item_id": 49428065, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49428065", "by": "dismalaf", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Currently using Omarchy on my laptop though which is a tad more exotic, it's Arch + Hyprland and is pretty polished for that stack", "excerpt": "Pretty much all of them. None require online accounts or anything like that. Browser choice is probably more important. For something that just works I recommend Fedora or Ubuntu. It's what I'd put on my mom or wife's PC. Currently using Omarchy on my laptop though which is a tad more exotic, it's Arch + Hyprland and is pretty polished for that stack (at least the current version, 4.0) but still a tiny bit of jank.", "context": "", "use_case": "laptop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "MS Paint and Photos inivisibly watermark even locally generated output with GUID"}, {"id": 790276208, "item_id": 49392263, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49392263", "by": "maxlin", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For me, it just clicked. For a secondary laptop where I don't want to run anything extra", "excerpt": "For me, it just clicked. For a secondary laptop where I don't want to run anything extra and want to stay clear on what I'm running, it just worked, even while its MASSIVELY different from how I run my main machines. Separately from using it on a secondary laptop, I have no idea if I could actually make it a daily driver though. Usually I have literally 50 windows, 200+ chrome tabs open, and use that state to \"extend", "context": "", "use_case": "secondary laptop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}, {"id": 790274240, "item_id": 49392140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49392140", "by": "jsuth", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I disliked many of the defaults. But it's quite easy to use an agent to customize everything to your liking.", "excerpt": "I think tiling makes much less sense on a laptop and more sense when you use a large display. I had a similar experience initially. I disliked many of the defaults. But it's quite easy to use an agent to customize everything to your liking. And I haven't really run into a situation where I couldn't accomplish what I wanted. I'm still deciding how I feel about hyprland. I use a unique hyperkey shortcut to focus each a", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux desktop setup", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}, {"id": 790270256, "item_id": 49391891, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49391891", "by": "software_writer", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Omarchy literally saved me thousands of dollars.", "excerpt": "I've been using ThinkPad E14 (AMD Ryzen 7, 16GB RAM, 512 SSD) - very happy with it. No problems with performance, battery, etc. at all. The new Dell XPS 13/14/16 is also good. Just get one with Windows and wipe it clean when installing Linux. In fact, I was going to buy a $4K M4 MacBook before I saw Omarchy and decided to give it a try with a new $730 ThinkPad. Exceeded all my expectations. Omarchy literally saved me", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux on ThinkPad", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}, {"id": 790261009, "item_id": 49391313, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49391313", "by": "sroerick", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I was very impressed with the demo video.", "excerpt": "Cool! I used Larbs.xyz for a while. I love a good dotfiles repo. I guess I think there's a lot more in Omarchy than a dotfiles repo, I was very impressed with the demo video. Even just creating the menu and updating system is non-trivial. Mirroring the entire distro through Cloudflare seems significant also. I've not seen those in another dotfiles project.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}, {"id": 790250464, "item_id": 49390654, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390654", "by": "Cakez0r", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used Fedora before Omarchy. I think it's excellent", "excerpt": "What don't you like about Omarchy? I'm not young and I used Fedora before Omarchy. I think it's excellent", "context": "not young; former Fedora user", "use_case": "daily Linux desktop", "switched_from": "Fedora", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}, {"id": 790247873, "item_id": 49390492, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390492", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I think that cachyos is a much more suitable option over omarchy.", "excerpt": "For what its worth, I am part of the very young men you mention* (currently 18) and I have talked to people my age on discord who use Linux. My opinion is that I think that cachyos is a much more suitable option over omarchy. Personally out of so many of the distros that I have tried including Omarchy, I found Cachyos to be somewhat perfectly balanced (atleast for me). So I highly recommend Cachyos if you haven't alr", "context": "18-year-old distro hopper", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}, {"id": 790245232, "item_id": 49390327, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390327", "by": "software_writer", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switching to Omarchy was one of the best decisions I made last year that improved my everyday computing experience so much", "excerpt": "Switching to Omarchy was one of the best decisions I made last year that improved my everyday computing experience so much, and introduced me to so many amazing tools like neovim, tmux, tiling window managers, Arch Linux, and countless TUIs.. Haven't touched my old MacBook this year at all. If you're in the market for a new laptop / operating system, I highly recommend you give it a try.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily desktop OS", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}, {"id": 790242592, "item_id": 49390162, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390162", "by": "euazOn", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I highly encourage anyone e.g. on MacOS to get a cheap laptop and give Omarchy a try.", "excerpt": "I highly encourage anyone e.g. on MacOS to get a cheap laptop and give Omarchy a try. My feeling of using this system compared to MacOS is a whole another level. And now one of the promises of Omarchy Quattro is that AI agents will help you tweak it to your liking very easily, avoiding having to spend dozens of hours ricing your system.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}, {"id": 782836608, "item_id": 48927288, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48927288", "by": "grepex", "date": "2026-07-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Omarchy 4 30k lines of ai generated code", "excerpt": "Respectfully, that's a bit of a stretch. Impaired human memory and increased risk taking are coefficients that would impact far more industries than software. I think the notion is that software, in particular, seems buggier. IF these side effects of repeated COVID infection have anything to do with software bugs, I would think it's contribution would be dramatically smaller than say LLM assisted coding, rapid mergin", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is it just me, or is software buggier across the board?"}, {"id": 779354480, "item_id": 48709655, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48709655", "by": "shivc", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "as much as I love Omarchy", "excerpt": "I understand what you mean and I've tried a few but haven't found something that's out of the box geared to dev the way Omarchy is, hence kept at it. Will keep an eye out in general for alternatives as much as I love Omarchy.", "context": "", "use_case": "development environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy is the best thing I've stopped thinking about. 1 year review blog"}, {"id": 778132992, "item_id": 48633312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48633312", "by": "sergiotapia", "date": "2026-06-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've now been using Omarchy as my operating system for months now. Gaming just works on Linux now.", "excerpt": "Thanks to Valve, I've now been using Omarchy as my operating system for months now. Gaming just works on Linux now. It's crazy, used to be a pipe dream! I'm buying the Steam Machine as well to game on the couch. Give me 4k 60fps and that's all I need. The Steam Controller is also fantastic shape on my hands, very comfortable.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily OS and gaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Steam Machine game testing"}, {"id": 773647584, "item_id": 48352974, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48352974", "by": "cientifico", "date": "2026-05-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used to play with omarchy. It is good enough for a lot of use cases.", "excerpt": "Also got it last year. I used to play with omarchy. It is good enough for a lot of use cases. For powerful work I just connect to remote session. Perfect for planes in economy", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux on small laptop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Chuwi Minibook X"}, {"id": 773406932, "item_id": 48337933, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48337933", "by": "krschacht", "date": "2026-05-30", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I\u2019m keeping an eye on Omarchy and Framework to see if they eventually solve all issues.", "excerpt": "In the last 18 months I tried a Framework twice and both times ended up returning it. I was running Arch both times and had too many low level issues. I couldn\u2019t get hibernation or sleep to work reliably. And about once a week I\u2019d get a random freeze or crash that required me to reboot and lose all the windows I had open. I spent dozens of hours with Claude chasing things down, disabling various power management feat", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux desktop setup", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12"}, {"id": 772148801, "item_id": 48259300, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48259300", "by": "Kon5ole", "date": "2026-05-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I get why it exists and I use it for convenience since I like Arch anyway", "excerpt": "Having tried both Omakub and Omarchy I think Omakub is the more interesting approach, and it certainly matches the OP's description - just a set of scripts and defaults applied to a standard Ubuntu. I'd love to see a bunch of similar projects based on slackware, debian, suse or whatever. I think most current distros/DE's dump \"everything and the kitchen sink\" at the user leaving him or her to finish the setup themsel", "context": "", "use_case": "daily desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your Dotfiles Are Not a Distro"}, {"id": 772144720, "item_id": 48259045, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48259045", "by": "magiclaw", "date": "2026-05-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I installed Omarchy, and I like it.", "excerpt": "\"if you're new to Linux, skip omarchy...\" I've been using linux for 20+ years. I used to spend way too much time ricing my system when I was young. I don't have time for that now. I installed Omarchy, and I like it. \"... install a real distribution - not some guy's personal dotfiles.\" \"the entire 'omarchy distribution' amounts to little more than Arch linux\" Your own statements contradict each other.", "context": "Linux user for 20+ years", "use_case": "daily Linux desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your Dotfiles Are Not a Distro"}, {"id": 772142912, "item_id": 48258932, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48258932", "by": "eximius", "date": "2026-05-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend installing Omarchy and playing with it.", "excerpt": "I recommend installing Omarchy and playing with it. Read through the Omarchy repo to see how the things you liked and disliked were set up. Then install arch or Cachy or some other Arch based distro and just use the parts you liked. I am completely disinterested in the author's concerns because Omarchy was useful to me in demonstrating how to compose pieces into a useful whole in a relatively minimalist distribution ", "context": "", "use_case": "learning how to compose a Linux setup", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your Dotfiles Are Not a Distro"}, {"id": 767600512, "item_id": 47975032, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47975032", "by": "software_writer", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "definitely worth trying if you're on the fence", "excerpt": "After more than a decade with Apple (and Windows before that), I\u2019ve been using Linux with Omarchy exclusively for the past few months and have been very happy with it. Can\u2019t imagine going back to Mac or Windows at this point. I had never really used Linux as a daily driver (aside from sysadmin stuff on remote servers), but Omarchy setup took less than 10 minutes and getting comfortable took just a few hours. Since sw", "context": "developer, previously Apple user for a decade", "use_case": "daily development work", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Year of the Linux Laptop: Omarchy on XPS"}, {"id": 761118656, "item_id": 47569916, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47569916", "by": "kennywinker", "date": "2026-03-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love omarchy", "excerpt": "The omarchy statement is just DHH dropping the r-word in a DM. I love omarchy, but manchild/edgelord behaviour from the lead doesn\u2019t exactly instill confidence.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "DoesItAgeVerify: The age verification status of Open Source Operating Systems"}, {"id": 750798273, "item_id": 46924892, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46924892", "by": "rokybeast", "date": "2026-02-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used Omarchy, and I had to remove a lot of binaries, AURs, etc.", "excerpt": "I think this operating system makes the use of Arch Linux easier, and if you stop and yell at the screen saying 'Omarchy', then please do consider the amount of bloatware/software not needed for you, is installed. I used Omarchy, and I had to remove a lot of binaries, AURs, etc. Then comes this OS, and when my friend recommended it, and he said \"which doesn't install anything much, and only the required binaries, and", "context": "", "use_case": "Arch Linux setup", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: The Codeverse Hub Linux"}, {"id": 745101904, "item_id": 46568869, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46568869", "by": "articsputnik", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I was mostly using the terminal and am therefore super happy with my choice now.", "excerpt": "I moved from 15 years of macOS to Linux (Omarchy in my case). I was mostly using the terminal and am therefore super happy with my choice now. I wrote more at https://www.ssp.sh/blog/macbook-to-arch-linux-omarchy/, in case of interest.", "context": "15 years on macOS, mostly terminal user", "use_case": "daily desktop OS", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great"}, {"id": 743550400, "item_id": 46471900, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471900", "by": "cryptica", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Omarchy (which is a fork of Arch Linux) is very developer-focused.", "excerpt": "I love the fact that there are different Linux distros optimized for every person. I started using Linux almost a decade ago; starting with Ubuntu, then I moved to Kubuntu and now I'm on Omarchy which is even more optimized for developers. I feel very comfortable recommending Linux to people now though I would recommend a different distro depending on who is asking. IMO Ubuntu is the simplest general-purpose one. Kub", "context": "Linux user for almost a decade", "use_case": "developer desktop", "switched_from": "Kubuntu", "story": "2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop"}, {"id": 733294608, "item_id": 45830913, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45830913", "by": "samtheDamned", "date": "2025-11-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Omarchy, in isolation, is just a bloated arch install with thrown together scripts, zoom, spotify, and google apps preinstalled.", "excerpt": "This comment sums up my own feelings towards this concisely : > This is not a \u201cI do not like this distribution\u201d kind of argument. > This is a \u201cthe people you are sending my money to want me and my friends dead or deported\u201d kind of argument. from: https://community.frame.work/t/framework-supporting-far-right-racists/75986/2 Beyond the disappointment I have in framework for giving my money to someone so clearly off the", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stepping Down as Framework Linux Community Ambassadors"}]}