Omarchy: The Bold, Beautiful and Brilliantly Opinionated Arch + Hyprland Experience

Omarchy is not your average Linux distribution. It’s a meticulously curated, unapologetically opinionated Arch Linux setup fused with the Hyprland tiling window manager, designed by David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) and brought to life under the 37signals umbrella. It’s a system that doesn’t just hand you a blank canvas – it gives you a fully realised, aesthetically tuned, productivity-focused environment from the moment you boot.

This is an omakase-style distribution: you’re trusting the chef’s taste. And in this case, the chef has a clear vision – a fast, keyboard-driven, theme-rich, developer-ready desktop that’s as beautiful as it is functional.

A Distinctive Philosophy

Omarchy’s ethos is simple: productivity flows from motivation, and motivation is fuelled by beauty and coherence. This is why it ships with a carefully selected suite of applications, a cohesive visual identity, and a workflow that’s unapologetically keyboard-centric.

From the moment you log in, the mouse takes a back seat. The Super key is your gateway to everything – Super + Space for the application launcher, Super + Alt + Space for the Omarchy Menu, and a wealth of hotkeys for launching, moving, and managing windows. Hyprland’s tiling magic means your workspace is always organised, and switching between tasks feels instantaneous.

Installation and First Impressions

Omarchy is installed via its dedicated ISO, which as of version 3.0 can be used entirely offline. The process is quick – under two minutes on fast hardware – and includes full-disk encryption by default. Secure Boot and TPM must be disabled, reflecting its independence from Microsoft’s security schemes.

The installer is designed for a dedicated drive, with dual-booting only recommended if you have separate disks. Once installed, you’re greeted by a high-DPI-optimised desktop, ready to work on retina-class displays but easily configurable for others.

Themed for Inspiration

Omarchy ships with eleven core themes, each styling the desktop, terminal, Neovim, notifications, top bar, application launcher, and lock screen. Themes like Tokyo Night, Catppuccin, Everforest, Gruvbox, and Osaka Jade are more than colour palettes – they’re immersive environments. Switching themes is instant, and backgrounds can be rotated or customised per theme.

For those with a creative streak, making your own theme is straightforward. Omarchy encourages personalisation, but always within a framework that keeps the system visually harmonious.

Applications That Matter

Omarchy’s application set is a blend of open-source essentials and pragmatic commercial tools. Out of the box, you’ll find:

Neovim (LazyVim) – a modal, terminal-based editor deeply integrated with Omarchy’s theming.
Alacritty – the default terminal, with options to switch to Ghostty, Kitty, or others.
Obsidian – for Markdown-based note-taking.
LibreOffice – for office productivity.
Pinta – for basic image editing.
LocalSend – for cross-platform file sharing.
Spotify, Zoom, Chromium, Typora – because real-world workflows often mix open and proprietary tools.

Terminal utilities like fzf, zoxide, ripgrep, Lazygit, Lazydocker, and Btop make command-line work fast and elegant.

Developer-Centric by Design

Omarchy is unapologetically developer-friendly. The Omarchy Menu offers quick installation of development environments for Ruby on Rails, Node.js, Python, and more. Editors like VS Code, Cursor, Zed, Sublime Text, and Helix are just a few keystrokes away.

Its dotfile structure encourages clean separation between user and system configurations, making it easy to tweak without breaking the curated defaults.

Security and Reliability

Security is baked in:

Full-disk encryption is mandatory.
Firewall enabled by default, with only essential ports open.
Rolling updates from Arch ensure the latest patches.

Omarchy’s update system integrates its own defaults with Arch’s repositories and the AUR, making it easy to stay current without losing your customisations.

Omarchy 3.0 Highlights

The 3.0 release is a leap forward:

Offline installation ISO – no internet required.
MacBook compatibility – including T1/T2 security chip support and Broadcom Wi-Fi.
New hotkeys and theme integrations – including Brave and Chromium theme switching.
Screen recording indicator in the top bar.
Faster application launcher via the Walker service.

✨The project proudly rolled out this version, followed shortly by a swift and thoughtful bug-fix update to 3.0.1—ensuring an even smoother experience for everyone.✨

Gallery

We humbly present below our collection of screenshots obtained from a Virtual Machine running on Virt-Manager hosted by MX-23.6:

How It Compares

Compared to pre-configured distributions like Manjaro or EndeavourOS, Omarchy is far more opinionated. Manjaro aims for broad appeal with multiple desktop environments and GUI tools, while EndeavourOS offers a near-vanilla Arch experience with minimal defaults. Omarchy, by contrast, delivers a fully realised environment with a specific workflow and aesthetic in mind.

Against Garuda Linux, which also offers themed Arch-based setups, Omarchy is leaner, more tightly integrated, and less about visual extravagance for its own sake. It’s not trying to please everyone – it’s designed for those who value a cohesive, keyboard-driven, developer-focused desktop.

Conclusion

Omarchy is a rare thing in the Linux world: a distribution that knows exactly what it wants to be. It’s not a toolkit for building your own environment from scratch, nor is it a bloated “everything included” distro. It’s a crafted, elegant, and highly functional workspace for people who live in their terminal, value speed and beauty, and appreciate a system that just works – brilliantly.

Disclaimer:
All product names, logos, brands, and trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. This article is based on official Omarchy sources and aims for factual accuracy, but readers should verify details from the original documentation before making technical decisions.

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