<div class="header-image"></div> <table class="table-header"> <thead> <tr> <th colspan="2"></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>2025-08-24</td> <td style="text-align: right;"><a href="About.md" class="internal-link">About</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> # The Future of Linux Is Here, and It Runs on Arch, BTW.  13 or 14 years ago, when I was fully into my distro-hopping phase of Linux, I tried Xmonad, which is a tiling window manager (TWM). I remember liking it ok, and got used to a keyboard-centric way of using my desktop but I didn't stay with it for too long. It was an ugly desktop (imo) and some other DE came along that was prettier and lured me away (I think it was KDE 4.8, if I remember correctly, as this was when KDE 4.x finally became stable enough to use as a daily driver). I never went back to TWMs, and eventually my distro-hopping slowed. I never did try Arch, and really only stuck to Debian/Ubuntu based distros. I've been using this environment now for so long that the prospect of change is a little worrying. And when Hyprland started getting some attention, it did spark that old spirit, but not enough to really drive me to try it out. I watched a few videos on it, but by this point I'd been settled into Mint for so long that I didn't really have a desire to change. It feels now like it did when I was a Windows user: I don't like the atmosphere here but if I change I'll have to relearn how to do everything! Not to mention that Omarchy *only* runs on Arch with Wayland. Arch scares me. There's a reason that the "I run Arch BTW" meme exists. It's difficult. Well, maybe not difficult to use, but difficult to maintain. Updates cause it to break. Back around the same time I tried Xmonad, I also tried the first iteration of LMDE, and later SolydK. They were semi-rolling, and it seemed that whenever there was an update the desktop broke and I had to sort my way to fixing it via the terminal. Arch isn't semi-rolling; it *is* rolling. And I'd heard endless stories of how getting anything done in Arch is impossible, because rather than doing any work, you have to spend time fixing the desktop first. So not for me. But then a month or 2 ago I came across this video by Pewdiepie, which had gone viral and garnered the attention of Linux users:  Fucking *Pewdiepie* runs Arch? With Hyprland? And the ricing he's done is really cool! Now this wasn't *quite* enough for me to abandon my beloved Mint install, at least not yet. But I came across a couple of videos about Omarchy, which is a custom Hyprland install on Arch. This sent me down a bit of a rabbit-hole learning about Arch, Hyprland, David Heinemeier Hansson ([@dhh](https://x.com/dhh)), and Vaxry. The more I read, the more intrigued I became. And the more videos I watched about Omarchy. I was enthralled. It was especially interesting for me as I was becoming tempted to order the new Framework 12" 2 in 1 laptop, and was wondering if I might need to install something with Wayland for better touchscreen support. Hyprland is a really beautiful desktop. And while I did take a look at Cosmic, the coming tiling desktop by System76 which also looks very good, it's been in development for 2 years and and is still in alpha. I couldn't even get it running with an ISO (not that I tried too hard, but really, that should be easy-peasy). I might take another look at Cosmic when it enters beta, but for now, it's just not worth it. One of the videos I watched was the [@dhh video for Omarchy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5Mnni7cea8), coincidentally around the same time that I listened to his [interview with Lex Friedman](https://lexfridman.com/dhh-david-heinemeier-hansson). This reminded me of the controversy that surrounded his company, 37 Signals, during the peak of woke hysteria in the last decade. I rediscovered this while researching Omarchy. Apparently there was an ever-expanding list of "funny names" that was kept by those who worked there. Some of the names were deemed offensive by younger hires and when David's apology wasn't sufficient enough, a 3rd of the company quit. I remember thinking at the time that this was probably a blessing, as all those who were only going to cause problems in the future just purged themselves. If they had stayed, they likely would have been a thorn in the side of that company for years, and employees like that, who endlessly cause frivolous HR issues, are notoriously difficult to fire. They just did him the favour of leaving so he didn't have to deal with them any more. Vaxry, the creator of Hyprland, has gone through a similar controversy. He was kicked out of the freedesktop.org community, which is run by IBM/Red Hat. This is quite consequential for someone creating a Wayland compositor like Hyprland, as he can no longer contribute upstream. The ban from the community, it should be noted, was a result of how the Hyprland Discord was/is moderated, not of anything actually related to FDO (freedesktop.org). This brings me to a problem that free and open source software was *supposed* to solve. The business practices of Microsoft, in the past, turned off a lot of people. I don't want to get into the subject of Microsoft in the 90s too much here: entire books have been written on the subject. But I want point out that Linux enthusiasts from the 90s were those who wanted complete control and ownership of their computers. This was impossible with Microsoft's licensing model, as modifying the software would violate the law. They wanted to escape the boot of corporate ownership. Linux and free software allowed for this. Now, in 2025, we are in a position where Linux is largely controlled by corporate interests. The Linux Foundation's Board of Directors and Technical Advisory Board is filled with representatives from Facebook, Sony, Microsoft, Panasonic, IBM/Red Hat, Google, Intel, etc. IBM/Red Hat in particular has a *massive* influence in the direction of the Linux desktop. This is no longer an organic community, with different hackers working to bring different perspectives of the desktop to people, letting them choose what's best for themselves, depending on each individual use case. This is choice being stripped from the community and handed to users in a very Apple-esque fashion. The Varxy/Hyprland issue, along with the situation [created by Red Hat regarding XLibre](https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/10/xlibre_new_xorg_fork/), the Xorg fork, highlight this. These decisions coming from above to steer Linux in a particular direction is not how FOSS is supposed to work. These issues I have with the direction of Linux is a large reason why I'm seriously considering a switch to Arch now. Arch is very much its own beast, and users can customize it to their liking. Arch users can choose to make their desktop however they like. Xorg? Wayland? XLibre? Whatever you like! Gnome? KDE? Mate? Hyprland? Hey, whatever floats your boat. Unlike most other distros that present desktops to the user, Arch allows for the installation of one or any combination of desktops they choose, or none at all! But more importantly, it's truly a distro of the community, and while it *does* have corporate backers, these monetary contributions primarily cover server and network costs. They are intended to cover the added costs that come with, say, Valve using Arch as the backend distro for the Steamdeck. So it's not reliant on any company, though it does get some monetary contributions from Valve and others to maintain its service infrastructure. But if these partnerships or monetary contributions ceased to be, Arch would still exist. Arch is run by enthusiastic volunteers. It's not a company. And this is what Linux is all about. There are not many distros left that are completely independent like this. My favourite distro, Mint, is reliant on Ubuntu and Debian. Arch is its own beast, and while it has its core maintainers, it truly belongs to the community. So while it can be more difficult to use, in that the Arch user has to be more diligent in maintaining the install, it is truly the better option if one wants to stick to the ethos of free software, and the Linux of old. There is no recognizable "Arch Desktop". *Everything* is available in Arch. And it's not beholden to the whims of any corporate entity. This is what a Linux distro is supposed to be. And this is the carrot that is now distracting me from the safe Debian/Ubuntu distros that I've enjoyed for so many years now. And, it must be said, the notion that Arch Linux is prone to frequent breakdowns is increasingly untrue. This video by Chris Titus Tech demonstrates how deeply into the weeds you can get making major changes to an Arch install while maintaining a functional system.  There is another aspect to this too. The videos I've watched and podcasts to which I've listened of DHH talking about Omarchy and Linux really strike me: The thing he seems to be pressing is that Linux needs to be unapologetically Linux, and to stop trying to be anything else. For the 15 years I've been using Linux, the goal has always been to grab users of different platforms, Windows or Mac, by being very Windows or Mac-like to ease the transition. But what this ignores is that people wanting to move on from these platforms are doing so because they are sick of them! Why try to lure them in with more of what they're trying to escape in the first place?  *DHH speaking about Linux and Omarchy - Commentary from Linux Unplugged* Now I don't think DHH was saying that this is a bad thing that some distros and desktop environments are attempting to mimic Windows or MacOS, but that there also needs to be alternative choices which are different from everything else. And what he's created with Omarchy is certainly that. All this has inspired me to install Omarchy on a spare laptop I had laying around. The laptop is a new-ish MSI with discrete Nvidia graphics. I did have some issues with the graphics card. It works, but I couldn't get Optimus to run, meaning I can't switch between the integrated Intel graphics and the Nvidia. I think that has more to do with Wayland than anything, probably. This is also my first attempt in running Wayland, and I'm not entirely sure what works and what doesn't. Perhaps with a little more research, I could get that working too. I also can't seem to change the default text editor, which DHH has set to VIM. I *could* learn how to use VIM, I'm sure, but honestly it's much more than I need in an editor. The only thing I use text editors for is changing random config files, CSS files, or quick notes. I'm not a developer, and I don't spend all my time writing code in an editor. I prefer something like Gedit or even Nano over VIM, which requires memorisation of a million hotkeys. Learning the hotkeys of Hyprland is quite enough for now. I don't need to add on VIM hotkeys too. Otherwise, it's really been a breath of fresh air. I was easily able to make some small changes to Waybar, and changed some keybindings. I've switched the default browser to Brave. He's made it really easy to install new themes, and creating new ones I think will also be relatively simple. Most of the theming is customising the colours of individual apps to match the wallpaper. The only real "desktop theming" done in Omarchy is the colour of the frame for the active window, and of Waybar and its icons. It took surprisingly little time to get used to the keyboard shortcuts of Hyprland. The biggest obstacle was really making use of virtual desktops, which I never really utilised before. But this is essential when using a TWM with only a single monitor at 1080p. It took about a day, but before long, I was easily navigating around, using the hotkeys to launch apps and switch desktops. On this laptop I'll probably switch to something like Bazzite. To be honest, I don't really feel like troubleshooting the Nvidia situation, and I want something I can easily and reliably game with, but the nice thing is, with these Hyprland customisations primarily being done with simple config files, I can easily migrate my personalisations to any Omarchy install. So when that new Framework 12" arrives I'll be able to just continue where I left off. After all, ricing never ends.