On Wed, 24 Sept 2025 at 03:29, Evan Leibovitch via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
Hi all,
I've never considered myself much of a distribution-hopper. Traditionally I would stick with a single distribution for many years until it either folded (Caldera, Mandriva) or made a major decision that drove me away (Mint dropping KDE, Ubuntu inventing snaps). I have almost never gone TO a distribution that was unique in having something that I (think that) I want. I'm on Fedora now because it's safe and stable while being more current in its software than Ubuntu (and by extension Ubuntu-based distros).
When I first mentioned Hyprland in August. Ron mentioned (correctly) that its default config is pretty basic, and unlike current GUI tools its configurations are generaly done by editing files under the ~/.config directory.
I've been playing with Hyprland under Fedora (with a login-time choice between it and KDE Plasma) and installed some complementary launchers, status bars, etc.
To ease the use of Hyprland, a number of people have come forward with instal scripts that would install a list of complementary apps and then install a set of Hyprland config files that would bring these components together into a nice looking system, nearly but not quite a Linux desktop that could replace GNOME, KDE or Cinnamon.
And then I came across Omarchy.
Wow. It's not only a set of FOSS supporting apps and configuration scripts. It builds on top of Weyland and Hyprland to provide the first truly new desktop paradigm I've come across in ages. Far less mouse-dependent, makes heavy use of the "Super" key (which is either ⌘ or ⊞ depending on whether you're on a Mac or PC), very compete and very fast. Plus, its defaults can be easily changed in the config files but wow, what a reference point to start from.
I encourage readers here to at least have a look at it, described in loving detail by its creator in this YouTube video.
Problem is.... it only really works well under Arch as it's closely tied to the pacman package manager and other Arch-isms. No other distros are supported.
If Omarchy is the killer app that I think it is, I might just try it, which means leaving Fedora after less than a year.
So after all that preamble ... my question is here, for anyone who has ever run Arch: Outside of the software-release and installation systems, is there anything significant that I would need to consider if switching? Going from Ubuntu to Fedora was utterly painless, I wonder if Fedora to Arch would be too...
Any experiences with Arch, Hyprland or Omarchy are greatly appreciated.
Tiling window managers have existed for a couple decades. (I said "window managers," because the "tiling" paradigm long predates Wayland. And plural, because there were many of them by the time the Wayland project started in 2008.) They have tended to be very stripped down, as most of the people who use them are trying to lose the distractions of window decorations and window management - let the WM or compositor handle that. Likewise, why clutter things up with taskbars and stuff? But others have seen this and thought they wanted that simplicity ... but with extra features like launchers and multiple desktops and a good file manager etc. etc. This is both the wonder and the torture of Linux: "do one thing and do it well," which means that you can get the best of every category of software ... and you have to learn every single piece of your perfect desktop separately. Tiling compositors also mean you have to learn keyboard controls, and that's not a paradigm that appeals to most people. Even though keyboard controls are almost always faster - but only if you can remember them. I'm happy you've discovered something exciting about Linux, but being a documenter of WMs and compositors, I'm too literal-minded to let that word "new" slide by. :-) -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com