abyss * your_dotfiles_are_not_a_distrothoughts<br>your_dotfiles_are_not_a_distro

your dotfiles are not a distro

omarchy is DHH's latest infatuation - omarchy describes itself like so:

> Omarchy is a beautiful, modern & opinionated Linux distribution by DHH.

as a longtime frequenter of r/unixporn, it was immediately apparent to me that this is not a distribution in any traditional sense -- the entire "omarchy platform" amounts to DHH's hyper-personalized dotfiles.

the whole thing should probably just be a few gists.

ultimately i think that any interest Linux desktops is a good thing, but i take serious issue with omarchy's posturing -- _why_ is omarchy is a huge focus of DHH's?

and _why_ does it have a conference, sponsors, and merchandise?

especially when longstanding distros like Debian have struggled with funding and sponsorship for decades?

i think there are 2 things going on here:

1. the advent of LLMs has made unix ricing orders of magnitude easier & more broadly interesting<br>2. apple's hardware lead & overall design philosophy is falling apart<br>3. DHH realized this, and is cashing in on a wave of new, inexperienced users looking for a cool looking "Linux 2 Install"

a hyper-configured Linux install is, necessarily, hyper-personal. if you install omarchy, you are not installing a Linux distribution - you are installing Arch Linux plus a huge lump of DHH's personal preferences.

~~example time~~

omarchy uses a window manager called hyprland -- here are a few preconfigured keybinds that come from omarchy:

SUPER + SHIFT + ALT + A: opens "https://grok.com"<br>SUPER + SHIFT + C: opens "https://app.hey.com/calendar/weeks/"<br>SUPER + SHIFT + E: opens "https://app.hey.com"<br>SUPER + SHIFT + ALT + X: opens "https://x.com/compose/post"

multi-character keybinds to open... grok? the X post dialogue? hey.com? reeeeeally?

and somehow, the pre-installed applications list is even worse. your default omarchy install will include:<br>* 1password<br>* claude-code<br>* spotify<br>* typora

plus preloaded scripts to install such refuse as:<br>* brave browser<br>* dropbox<br>* nordvpn (lol)

...

what are we doing?? these are not the kinds of packages that any sane distro would ship to its users.

and one last thing that's personally offensive to me: a 37-line default ghostty config

shipping a default config for a terminal that's designed to be usable without any configuration...

* my eyes roll out of my head *

...

if you're new to Linux, skip omarchy and install a real distribution - not some guy's personal dotfiles.

if i wanted shitware, i'd just install Windows.

~ jes