I Was thinking about switching to full-time Linux for years, maybe decades. I’ve had Linux installed on side-computer (Ubuntu and Mint on my home server), but not on my main laptop. I made the switch on 23 March. I decided to install Omarchy, because it looked cool and it was a new and refreshing user experience. I thought I´d give it a try.

But I don´t love the fascist captain and I don´t love the bloat. Now I also hear that it is being build and maintained by AI.

But also, I love the way Omarchy works. I love the keyboard oriented aproach. I love the super-button. I love the menus. I love the nvim setup. I love the desktop layout. I love that it just works out-of-the-box and that it is (or appears) stable. I love that installing anything is so easy.

I appreciate Omarchy for being such a good gateway drug into the Linux world for people like me and I think it deserves some credit for that. But I also have ethical complaints that ruin the fun.

So what I’m really looking for is, how can I take all these features I like so much, and apply them on a proper distro?

The obvious solution seems Arch, but I want my computer to work without having to spend weeks learning how all the mechanics and fine configuration details work. I don´t even now what the configuration details are that make the things I like. Maybe that’s not an issue with Arch, but I don´t know much about Arch tbh. I haven´t had the time to learn about it.

Or maybe I’m just asking too much as an old man (though dhh is a decade my senior) and I should just go back to Mint…

  • Luffy@lemmy.ml
    27·
    2 months ago

    love the keyboard oriented aproach. I love the super-button. I love the menus. I love the nvim setup. I love the desktop layout.

    You love hyprland. Use it then.

  • 404@lemmy.zipEnglish
    20·
    2 months ago

    If you like Arch and want fresh packages (e.g. new window managers) but you don’t want to fiddle too much with it, you can go for EndeavousOS which is super easy to install. Then add Hyprland (which is used by Omarchy) or Mango (better choice IMO) or Niri (for a new experience) on top of it. Check out !unixporn@lemmy.world and look at their configs/dotfiles. Copy the ones you like.

  • James R Kirk@startrek.websiteEnglish
    91·
    2 months ago

    I’m confused, Omarchy is MIT licensed. It means you can use it and keep all the rights. You are under no obligation to financially or politically support the people who contribute code and they do not get a say with how you use the software.

    EDIT: Also literally posting this to a Lemmy instance…

  • alecsargent@lemmy.zip
    5·
    2 months ago

    Omarchy is just an opinion, this opinion are the configuration files and the packages installed by default. You can get a better setup for yourself by using plain Arch, installing Hyprland and configuring dotfiles on your own. I suggest using the archinstall script if you do not want to do the manual Arch install. In that installation you can just select the Hyprland desktop option and it will do everything for you. Then you can transfer the needed configuration files from your Omarchy setup. There will not be any more need for configurations if you do not want it.

    There are loads of people who share their dotfiles tips and tricks online, I share my dotfiles in Codeberg, have a window managers community, and a work in progress website with window manager tips.

  • sbeak@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    4·
    2 months ago

    I really enjoy using EndeavourOS, in a nutshell, it’s Arch with a graphical installer and a few small tweaks that make the user experience a little better, like reminders to reboot after updating system bits. I also love that they are naming their ISOs (when they update what packages ship when you install) after the objects of the Solar System, like “Titan”, “Ganymede”, and “Mercury”. As a space nerd, I think that’s pretty neat, and the default wallpapers look cool too!

    And EndeavourOS, being Arch-based, will also support any sort of desktop environment or window manager of your choice that is available in Arch. If you want specifics, the ArchWiki is super helpful! You might like Hyprland (but apparently is has a toxic community), and there are plenty of other neat tiling window managers too, each with their own pros and cons. Alternatively, you could go with COSMIC for something with less config editing, but note that it is still in beta basically, so a lot of things will simply not work and you’ll experience graphical glitches.

    But if you are fine with something that doesn’t use tiling, you then have the option for GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Cinnamon for the desktop environment. For the OS, you have Fedora, OpenSUSE, one of the buntus, Mint (or LMDE?), Debian, Arch-based options, gaming-centric distros, etc., it really is options fatigue.

    In my opinion, if you like Cinnamon, go with Mint (or LMDE if you don’t want something based on Ubuntu), as it is stable and works well with most hardware. Fedora is probably the best option if you want something with GNOME or Plasma, but is owned by Red Hat and therefore IBM, a large American corporation. You might not want that, and in that case, I would point you towards OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, Arch-based distros (since you are comfortable with those), and some of the community maintained spins of Fedora (there’s a lot of those). If you’re okay with older packages, Debian might also be something to look at.

  • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
    3·
    2 months ago

    You should try nixos next, then you can find another set of configs you like and plug them in, but this time you can customize them.