What is Omarchy - non-dev answerWhat is Omarchy - non-dev answer
I've been hearing about Omarchy on nostr and X all summer. On SN, @kepford posted about Omarchy back in July (#1029614), but it dind't get much attention.
The main developer behind Omarchy, DHH, calls it a linux distribution in the introduction video on the main page (omarchy.org). So, it's an operating system that you could run instead of Windows or MacOS or Ubuntu.
More specifically, it's Arch Linux, which is a often considered an "advanced" form of Linux. Techno-ignorant folks like me use Ubuntu or maybe Mint. But the consensus seems to be that Omarchy is a Arch Linux with a bunch of preconfigured settings that just work really, really well.
Omarchy video introductionOmarchy video introduction
I'm pretty tempted. Any reason I shouldn't go through the trouble of switching my system over to this (even though I don't plan on doing any kind of developer work)?I'm pretty tempted. Any reason I shouldn't go through the trouble of switching my system over to this (even though I don't plan on doing any kind of developer work)?
The drama (honestly, this has nothing to do with Omarchy, it's just interesting and the way people are acting reminds me a little bit of Bitcoin's current drama, so I'm including it here)The drama (honestly, this has nothing to do with Omarchy, it's just interesting and the way people are acting reminds me a little bit of Bitcoin's current drama, so I'm including it here)
In poking around trying to figure out what Omarchy is, I came across a pile of drama (little bit it reminds me of the current drama in Bitcoin...apparently getting humans to cooperate together is hard).
It seems that DHH wrote a blog post called "As I Remember London", which describes the changing demographic landscape of London and British people's reactions to it.
I'm generally pretty pro-immigration of all kinds (I'm a simple man: more people = more wealth), but even so, I thought his post was good because it also focuses on the frankly insane move towards authoritarianism on the part of the British government. King George has always been a controlling little bastard, but of late, they've amped up their efforts. DHH does a nice job of calling this out.
But it pissed off some people who work on other projects that DHH created and so there was this open letter calling for a fork of one such project -- not because of any technical reason, but because the people didn't like his political views.
The words bullies find usefulThe words bullies find useful
DHH recently wrote another post entitled "Calling someone a "nazi" is a permission slip for violence."
I very strongly agree with his point here. While it is somewhat easy to come up with a list of things that an actual member of the Nazi party might have espoused, in our present day the word seems to have devolved into an amorphous gloop that pretty much just means "really awful person" -- and as DHH points out, it comes with a bunch of baggage that implies that the subject of the epithet is a real, physical threat (and therefore grants permission for violent behavior).
We need to be careful about words like this. Fascist gets used in the same manner. As does terrorist. These are useful words for people are interested in controlling others. You can use these words to short-circuit real debate. I often wonder how the history of the early 2000s would have gone if we had refused to accept that Al-Qaeda and co were terrorists, and rather viewed them as a state -- an enemy state with whom we were at war, but a state nonetheless.
(Scammer and shitcoiner are also words like this. Another one of these useful terms has shown up in the Bitcoin drama recently. I'll leave you to guess which it is).
Solely commenting on the OS:
Yes you should try it, except when you need a super-stable system or have a heightened security requirement. Arch is a rolling distro (and it's about as front-y as brew and Debian sid) so you're at the bleeding edge of any supply chain attack. For example, the xz backdoor made it into arch, whereas distros that stage & release caught it before release; there's some added risk here.
These tradeoffs are not mentioned enough.
I generally feel that many recommendations are given from a relatively noob/hype perspective. Like someone uses something new for a week and straight out recommends it to everyone, without mentioning any tradeoffs at all. So yeah, people are jumping on things too soon, I think, but I also get it: the hype cycle must be ridden or else it's gone.
But then, if install docs tell me to install rust nightly to get some tool to compile I'm always noping out, so maybe I'm just a slow, old boomer, ready to be deprecated together with my old codebases.
That's a very important observation, thank you!
Thanks! I'm generally not too worried on about high security stuff. I don't do anything sensitive on my main device. I may end up dual booting it.
I think you can boot it from USB to test
It's just applying his workspace preferences in script form on an underlying Arch Linux install, most of it being keyboard shortcuts, alternative cli tools, and a minimalist window manager...
I like DHH, but the hype seems to me like personality cult / current-thing'ism
If you were comfortable with obscure keyboard shortcuts, cli tools, and a minimalist wm, you'd not identify as techno-ignorant and have your own preferences already.
Might be able to learn from tinkering with it in a VM, but your odds of keeping it as a daily driver are extremely low. I may fire it up myself just to see if there's anything I may want to adopt into my own config, I'm particularly curious about hyperland, but someone elite with this stuff like he is going to have a workspace incompatible to the needs of someone just shopping UX because they feel homeless in linux.
My go-to recco for Linux given the path of least resistance is Kubuntu (It's a tragedy that Ubuntu ships Gnome instead, probably loses a lot of people)
I also second @optimism that Arch is not a serious distribution for productivity.
I agree, but this is how most devs operate. Especially MacOS devs. So the great side of this is DHH exposing people to what is possible in an OS that isn't controlled by a top down corporation.
As a long time Linux user I'm not interested but DHH showed what is possible with a highly opinionated set up based on his preferences. MANY have done this before but he is more prominent. I think it will stick. More people will be on Linux and I think that's a win.
Exactly!!
thanks! the current-thing-ism charge rings true. I'll have a look at Kubuntu.
Good video from fireship on what's in omarchy just to save yourself a tinker
view on youtu.beHonestly I think that being able to get people excited on an oss OS is a good thing. Marketing is part of it. If this guy was able to market a simple config package so successfully that now everyone wants to try this flavored Arch distro, with many actually finding it useful, and even pretty, then it's a feat I bow to, for it will do nothing but nourish the ecosystem we love.
Yea it's all well and good if it gets people to at least try Linux again, could be an interesting trend if more people start bundling their prefs and that results in a bunch of bespoke psuedo-distros that collectively discover new user patterns or increase visibility to lesser known software.
My point is that this specifically isn't going to stick with casuals, its not some revolutionary UX, and the hype is typical hipster psychology, they'll be onto the next current-thing probably by the time I finish this sentence.
Lets see how it unfolds! If the trendy hipsters ended up fueling true adoption by true users regardless of their own actual choice, props to them!
Seems pretty cool, i've just picked up a macbook as of late, probably the best performing laptop i've ever had. If I were to switch OS I'd probably go down the nix RabbitHole again.
eh, the same guy that complained about jetbrains avoiding to use the “he” pronoun in their software because a dev can also be a woman.
he loves to do whiny engagement baits so much that it’s tiring
now an hyper pragmatic opinion on the switch: don’t. — at least if you want to enjoy life. ubuntu has unparalleled support from companies and community, and it just works.
the only other alternative I like to use (and use) is Fedora, because of the Red Hat base, and also because openSUSE got too annoying
omarchy looks super dope. I'll test this weekend
The biggest thing about this distro is the tiling window manager. You can use it on many distros that do not have Arch's tradeoffs. What's nice about this project is it is an example of what can be built. The true power of Linux is being able to create an OS to your own needs and preferences. I have done so, which is the main reason I have little interest in this project. But most people don't want to create their own OS config.
Most of the devs coming to this are on MacOS and are not able to do what DHH is doing in his project. I think it's worth tying out as it's an easy onramp and offers discovery of many useful tools available in most distros.
If you are considering switching from Ubuntu to Omarchy, the most important thing to understand is that Omarchy is fundamentally Arch Linux at its core with some opinionated preconfigurations designed to make it friendlier. This means you inherit both Arch’s strengths and its weaknesses...
Strengths include access to the latest software updates, a huge package repository via the Arch User Repository (AUR), and a high level of customizability. Because it is rolling release, you are always running the most current versions without waiting for a new distro cycle as in Ubuntu.
Weaknesses stem from that same rolling release model. Updates are not staged and tested as conservatively as in something like Ubuntu LTS, which means the risk of breakage or even security issues slipping through is higher. The xz backdoor incident is a perfect example of how cutting edge can sometimes also mean cutting into stability. If you rely on your computer for mission critical work or operate in a high security environment, an Arch-based system may require more vigilance and manual intervention to ensure stability and safety.
In short, if you enjoy tinkering, value having the latest tools, and are okay with an occasional need to troubleshoot, Omarchy will give you a powerful and modern environment out of the box. If you need maximum uptime with minimal maintenance, sticking to Ubuntu LTS or another slower-moving distro is probably the better choice.