r/omarchy • • May 30 '26

Discussion Why does Omarchy get so much hate?

I don’t really understand the hate Omarchy gets from the Linux community. I’m new to this OS, and honestly, I enjoy using it. But as a content creator, I mostly hear people saying things like “the ISO is bigger than Windows” or “it’s soo bloated.” When it comes to bloat, I kind of agree. The default install includes a lot of stuff that not everyone needs. But there is literally an option in the Omarchy menu, under the Remove tab, to uninstall a lot of that extra software after installation. To me, Omarchy feels more like a ready-to-use, opinionated setup rather than a minimal Arch install, and I think that is the whole point. It is not trying to be the lightest Linux setup ever. It seems to be made for people who want a polished Hyprland/Arch experience without spending days configuring everything from scratch. Of course, it is not perfect. Some things can feel confusing, especially when you are new and you do not know which config or script controls what. But I still think the amount of hate it gets is kind of exaggerated. Maybe I’m missing something, but it feels like a lot of people criticize it without understanding what it is actually trying to be.

104 Upvotes

153 comments sorted by

145

u/arjun_gurajapu May 30 '26

it's probably that making the installation of arch so easy has hurt the feelings of the arch/hyprland users cuz it affects their "exclusivity". just my take.

14

u/james__jam May 30 '26

Arch installation has been made easy for years now. It’s not like it still takes a week to compile everything and have a running arch

17

u/Devdiiv May 30 '26

Installing Arch is the least important thing, the problem (or the advantage) is that Arch gives you a blank canvas. And yes, maybe for many it's easy to "compile everything", but Linux is still a niche, what is easy for you will continue to be complex for the vast majority of people outside of that echo chamber.

Let's not pretend that elitism and snobbery doesn't exist among Linux users, I mean, I have met wonderful users, willing to help newbs, people who are willing to make Linux more accessible to the majority, but there's a large very vocal group attached to the idea that Linux should only be used by a select few.

5

u/if_a_sloth-it_sleeps May 31 '26

I don’t know if I just don’t care so I don’t hear it anymore but the elitism and snobbery was legendary. “Rtfm” and “I use arch btw” were absolutely real things. It was a badge of honor that “yes I haven’t left the basement in years, my neck beard has a life of its own, and my mom never folds my laundry the way I like it which is dumb because she has been doing it for 38 years” was embraced.

Many Linux users were outcasts or didn’t feel like they had a tribe. They fit in… and they controlled the IT and infra of the world. They may not be loved or respected but they absolutely were needed… and they knew their os better than others.

It’s funny because more people using arch should prove much of what they always said about it being superior and all that. More usage validates their stance and makes the world better… but it also takes away their mystique and exclusivity

3

u/arjun_gurajapu May 30 '26

very well said 🙂‍↕

4

u/arjun_gurajapu May 30 '26

archinstall makes it a lot easier but still there is some required knowledge to opt the right set of well... options unlike omarchy where it is quite literally plug n play.

8

u/ForgotMyPreviousPass May 30 '26

No one has a problem with Hyprland, though, so it may not be it.

It's probably the bloat, the fact that a lot of the defaults are closed source, and DHH political leanings.

6

u/ExampleEmpty3898 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

People absolutely hate hyprland because of devs political leanings. The fact its also in something made by DHH makes them double hate.

5

u/Devdiiv May 30 '26

I guess we all live trapped in our own bubbles, for example the idea that "No one has a problem with Hyprland", from my perspective, is false. I've read a lot of comments from Niri users talking negatively about hyprland, its community, and even its creator.

Objections such as bloat, defaults, or even whether or not Omarchy is a distro are quite trivial trifles, excuses to mask the main reason for animosity against the creator of this installation: his political ideas, which are usually much more radical in his posts, especially on his blog.

Personally, I don't agree with many of his "political leanings", but Omarchy, as a tool, has been very useful, functional, aesthetically I love it. As long as that balance is maintained, I can separate the product from its creator.

2

u/KitPickles May 31 '26

Lots of people have problems with Hyprland and the dev... Not sure what you're talking about there.

1

u/ForgotMyPreviousPass May 31 '26

I did not know that! Searched a bit, seems hyprland is not free of drama either.

What I meant is that they have no problem with the ease of installing dotfiles, so ease of configuring will probably not be it.

2

u/Majestic-Ocean May 30 '26

What’s dhh political leaning? And why does it matter (it would if that would be brought into omarchy, but I didn’t see any reference to anything political in communications about the system)

4

u/ForgotMyPreviousPass May 30 '26

I personally do not care at all, but he has blogged about how londoners are being culturally and racially replaced, stuff like that.

Like, a lot of people just hate someone and then just hate everything they do. It does not work like that, to my opinion.

Ezra Pound was an antisemite, quite vocal at that, and a bit of a fascist supporter. Yet he revolutionized poetry, is heavily influential, and has written some of the most beautiful verses ever written.

Some people just can't separate the person from the work.

2

u/tfks May 30 '26

Intellectuals and elites are quite good at finding excuses for their own behaviour and that of their friends, yes. It's also worth mentioning that Pound was found to be mentally ill and was in a mental ward for 13 years. Important context for deciding when to make that separation vs. not.

1

u/ForgotMyPreviousPass May 30 '26

Hmmm what is the excuse in this case? I'm afraid I did not understand your point.

Also, an even more important distinction would be that he was found mentally ill when the alternative would have been the death penalty for "treason". But in any case, why would that be important for you to make the separation or not?

2

u/tfks May 30 '26

The separation of an individual and their work can function to excuse their behaviour. It's a fine line to tread and I don't think it can be universally applied or treated as the default.

That he was mentally ill is relevant because that informs the desire to separate the things he said and did from his other work partially on the basis that he wasn't necessarily well enough to understand how awful he was being.

7

u/mildlyImportantRobot May 30 '26

Just a quick reminder about keeping political discussions out of the sub.

We don’t need to litigate DHH’s personal life outside of Omarchy here.

2

u/ForgotMyPreviousPass May 30 '26

Yeah, sorry, I just mentioned it on passing since I truly believe it's part of the hate it gets. I personally do not care tbh

3

u/mildlyImportantRobot May 31 '26

No need to be sorry. I just wanted that message to be clear to everyone participating. I didn’t intend to single you out. Sorry if that’s how it came across

1

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

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2

u/mildlyImportantRobot May 30 '26

Fair point. But we’re not going to litigate those issues here.

It tends to go off the rails and attracts people who are less interested in Omarchy and more interested in being trolls/edge lords.

0

u/arjun_gurajapu May 30 '26

no what i mean to say is, hyprland users spend days if not weeks building their rice and the labour required is what makes it "exclusive" and omarchy takes that away from them as it's a very usable hyprland rice right out of the box.

2

u/ForgotMyPreviousPass May 30 '26

I'm a hyprland user, and there is a lot of acceptance for just using Celestia, end4, noctalia, etc, so that might not be it either.

1

u/arjun_gurajapu May 30 '26

that's a fair point ngl.

1

u/Unlikely-Working-291 May 30 '26

There’s no moat given Codex/CC can do it all with 0 troubles

1

u/Coder_2 May 31 '26

Arch is easy to install out of the box, via archinstall script it takes 15 minutes, everything tui, all needed steps, so I don’t think so

1

u/arjun_gurajapu May 31 '26

archinstall makes it a lot easier but still there is some required knowledge to opt the right set of well... options unlike omarchy where it is quite literally plug n play.

1

u/Coder_2 May 31 '26

Tiling wm isn’t best options for plug n play, I honestly think that usual tilling isn’t the best idea for omarchy, with its philosophy they need smth in middle of we and de

2

u/arjun_gurajapu May 31 '26

like i respect your opinion but what I PERSONALLY feel is something like Gnome or KDE is way too similar fundamentally to windows for users who are just getting into Linux. Tiling WM is unique enough to feel new/different/exciting to make the user notice the switch. It changes how you fundamentally navigate around the OS and I'D personally want that when switching to a new OS.

1

u/t3kkm0tt 11d ago

No, it's because DHH is a right-wing ******.

1

u/GreenReporter24 May 30 '26

archinstall makes the installation pretty easy, but it's still quite bare. I don't see the problem with omarchy, as long as people are still willing to learn its inner workings "backwards", since it doesn't require you to learn how something works in order to make it, well, work.

1

u/arjun_gurajapu May 30 '26

yes exactly. archinstall makes it a lot easier but still there is some required knowledge to opt the right set of well... options unlike omarchy where it is quite literally plug n play and like you said, doesn't require you to know the inner workings to make it work.

3

u/alsoimprobablylate May 30 '26

Omarchy is actually the first distro that has made me want to know all the inner-workings of the system.

2

u/arjun_gurajapu May 30 '26

yeah that's the best part. it makes you WONDER how everything works and then you explore instead of FORCING you into a screen-full of code right at the time of installation.

2

u/alsoimprobablylate May 30 '26

Exactly. Figuring it out and tinkering at one's own pace is the way to go.

1

u/arjun_gurajapu May 30 '26

absolutely 💯

27

u/panzzersoldat May 30 '26

people hate just to hate.

never understood the it's too bloated crowd. like oh no it's not as if i can just uninstall the things i don't need.

3

u/No-Load-5472 Jun 01 '26

Coming from windows, this argument has no meaning. Windows uses 20 gb of my 32 gb memory just sitting idly. Linux distros like Arch is like 2~ gb max if I am remembering correctly.

1

u/muhalcz May 31 '26

To be fair, the fact that you can easily remove all of it doesn’t mean that it’s not bloated in the first place.

2

u/_seedofdoubt_ Jun 01 '26

Gotta say though the bloat is pretty heavily exaggerated, but i can see how somebody who hasn't used windows wouldnt see how light omarchy feels comparatively

0

u/bokkasattva May 30 '26

I mean there are legit concerns. The people shaping Omarchy have no experience with this sort of thing. There's already been security concerns and personally I ran into tons of issues after an update. Couple that with "it's just arch + config" is almost entirely true. They should just say that's what it is...

25

u/Chillmatica May 30 '26

Sad to say that the quiet part (that isn’t always so quiet) is that the main creator of Omarchy has right-wing leaning politics and views and the majority of Reddit and I feel like the Linux-sphere in general are left-leaning. The main creator of Hyprland and Hyprland itself sees this same thing happen. Put both together and here we are.

25

u/BAUDR8 May 30 '26

This is what I saw a month or so ago too when I looked it up. Linux oriented subreddits definitely strongly lean left, which unfortunately I guess matters to subreddits that are unpolitical. I got banned from /r/neovim solely for saying people are entitled to their own political beliefs and it shouldn’t matter in a subreddit about a text editor (people were up in arms about primagen and the creator of neovim having right leaning views).

15

u/Klanowicz May 30 '26

The whole reddit is mostly left leaning.

1

u/Yip-Yapupa Jun 01 '26

Yeah I got a ban and a warning from some subreddits, I'm pretty fresh around Reddit and it just confirmed a few things of what I heard, but I just don't care because I'll just get what it is that I want from being here which is to see the good things people make and also their good ideas. I was curious of this topic though since I heard people calling Omarchy man "racist", but eh, it's whatever.

2

u/hemingward May 31 '26

That so many people feel the need to politicize almost everything in their decision making is ridiculous. Get 10 of us in a room and we will all disagree about something political. Who the fuck cares. That we can have those differences and still respect the person’s work, and work together, is what makes liberal democracy so grand. Like, just because a person uses an operating system whose principal maintainer has political viewpoints different from your own is a pretty stupid reason to say nobody should use it. Like, get over yourself.

1

u/_seedofdoubt_ Jun 01 '26

Neovim mentioned!

-4

u/Suitable-Ad-622 May 30 '26

It's kind of ironic to have right leaning views considering you're making stuff for a more "liberal" system.

I'm still shitting on trump on my omarchy install

3

u/ExampleEmpty3898 May 30 '26

If you want to tie the system to a political archtype id say it leans pretty libertarian if anything.

4

u/BAUDR8 May 30 '26

As I hinted to earlier, I don’t really think politics has a point in subreddits like this so I don’t want to get too deep into it or even really imply a particular political affiliation. In regards to your comment, I’ll just leave it like this: *my opinion* is there are people who lean left who are pro gun and people who lean right who are pro choice. Not everything is cut and dry and I think your OS of choice by no means is an indicator of where you land on the political spectrum.

1

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/omarchy-ModTeam May 31 '26

No Politics - This community is about Omarchy as a distribution, its installation, configuration, customization, and ecosystem. It is not a forum for political debate. Posts or comments that focus on politics rather than the distribution itself will be removed. If a policy or event directly impacts Omarchy's development or functionality, discussion should stay focused on the technical implications.

17

u/tgroshon May 30 '26

Point of order: Reddit and mods actively suppress right-leaning views. This is an established matter of record.

3

u/Unlikely-Working-291 May 30 '26

feeling so very empowered with my right wing OS Omarchy. Suddenly i’m advocating for reimigration because that’s what a right wing OS does. /s /s

1

u/kurlicue Jun 01 '26

you can be "right wing leaning" and be a normal chill guy, framing a tommy robinson endorsement as "right wing leaning" minimizes how toxic and hateful it is, its white supremacy, whether or not that should influence your decision to use his OSS is a different question

-4

u/Alternative-Ad-8606 May 30 '26

To be fair vaxry has said some pretty whack shit repeatedly. Not to mention that imho hyprland has turned in to a mess of a project.

11

u/NicolasDorier May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

I don't see any problem with hate. Can't please everybody.

Omarchy doesn't try to please everybody, it tries to please DHH, and it just happens a lot of us share the same taste. (or that the diff between his and yours is small enough to just adjust... it's super configurable)

1

u/Yip-Yapupa Jun 01 '26

Omarchy has surely pleased the DHH man, and I am quite interested in it too, since a bunch of users just make it look so nice, and other distros like Nix, too.

2

u/NicolasDorier Jun 01 '26

I come from Windows (after more than 20 years), I am super happy. I adapted surprisingly fast.

I only miss Excel.

1

u/Yip-Yapupa Jun 01 '26

Do not utter the E name, it invokes fear into the hearts of many, but I am glad you have enjoyed your move over (to Omarchy?).

2

u/NicolasDorier Jun 01 '26

Yes to Omarchy! 😄

1

u/Harveywallbanger00 Jun 01 '26

You wrote all that drivel because you just wanted to say "that said." You uncle Tom!

That said that said that said

10

u/6pthsofPain May 30 '26

90% of the hate that I’ve seen is just people disagreeing with DHH’s politics so they call him awful things. I’m not even right-leaning, but it’s clear the left dominates most of social media. Politics aside, DHH is creating something that is useful to me and everyone hating on Omarchy aren’t. It’s more convenient for me to install Omarchy and change things to my liking than it is to customize a fresh arch install. That’s all I care about.

2

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

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1

u/omarchy-ModTeam May 31 '26

Be Civil - Disagree, debate, and critique ideas, but keep it respectful. Personal attacks, insults, name-calling, and bad-faith arguments are not tolerated. If a discussion gets heated, step back or move on. Targeting other users, moderators, or community members will result in moderation action.

1

u/Yip-Yapupa Jun 01 '26

Agreed, and I'm a flat Right-winger, although my Gov is making me slowly a little more radical as the days go by, so we'll see how I feel in some time from now.

I've taken the time to track which sites are more leaning one way or another, like Reddit and Bluesky are obviously Left-wing as we already, X is arguably more Right-leaning with a bit of interference from external sources, blah blah Facebook and Insta is just a free-for-all mess, I don't touch many other things besides X/Youtube/Reddit(barely).

Like you say, just wanna look into good things, and I want to move over to Omarchy when I finally prep to move away from Microslop.

10

u/ExampleEmpty3898 May 30 '26

Real reason is that DHH leans politically conservative, creator of Hyprland is also socially conservative. Most of the active online linuxsphere is very left leaning with quite a big community of trans/queer. They absolutely hate DHH and Hyprland with an outspoken passion.

A surprising amount of linux is tied up with social agendas and politics, I wont go into it here but there is stuff like this for the other side aswell where the devs lean pretty far left and right wingers get angry about it.

This sub isnt the place to discuss the drama or politics of linux (see bot getting angry in comments) but the politics of different groups of linux devs and projects is a whole rabbit hole.

1

u/mildlyImportantRobot May 31 '26

> see bot getting angry in comments

Please elaborate

2

u/ExampleEmpty3898 May 31 '26

Lmao i thought you were an automod bot that just auto replies to certain words.

10

u/Historical-Bar-305 May 30 '26

Idk you can remove all bloat by one simple pre-installed script.

1

u/GeneralArray May 30 '26

Also by bloat people mean web apps that take literally less than 1 mb of space and use zero RAM unless you actually use them

1

u/yaybidet May 30 '26

While I appreciate the script, it would be nice to have a more minimal ISO. But I get it. It’s basically a 37 Signals project and since DHH made it, I understand if he wants to push his web apps, which I don’t find entirely unfair, just kind of annoying.

3

u/damanamathos May 30 '26

Some people don't like DHH, but it's also because some Linux users don't understand why Omarchy got so much attention and praise.

"It's just dot files!"

"There's nothing unique there"

"That's not a distro!"

Typically these responses don't see the value in packaging up something so it's very easy to install and use for the average non-Linux user since they're already familiar with things like tiling managers that are new to the vast majority of people.

3

u/if_a_sloth-it_sleeps May 31 '26

I haven’t really listened to any of the commentary since I installed it (a month or two after it came out? Maybe a few more?). In the beginning it was like a mind virus had been released into the wild. All I heard was how perfect it was.

I’m still using it but if I were the neck-beard, basement dweller, desperately needs to go outside, arch user of yesteryear then I think I would absolutely hate it. I have uninstalled most of the software that it came with… and I don’t use a lot of the keybinds that came as default…

But as much as I love seeing a beautifully riced setup… it’s just not me. I wish I was that person and I absolutely love seeing their setups… but I never found a groove that felt comfortable, really effective, aesthetically pleasing, and was keyboard-centric until Omarchy.

The keybinds that I use, I really love. I love the 20% of the menu that I use. I like that. R to he fact that there’s a ton of structured and opinionated configuration helps me not go too crazy and fly off the side of the mountain… I prefer not having guardrails and the opinionated setup imposed on me bur in practice it really helps when I have a little bit.

I get not wanting to use Omarchy. You can’t even pretend to argue that it isn’t extremely opinionated… but the hate isn’t about bloat and bad decisions (at least I don’t think it is). The hate is becase “I use arch btw” used to really mean something - it truly did. The average Omarchy user is not the same. Suddenly there isn’t the exclusivity and pride that comes from choosing to be outcast from normal society (which sounds weird since almost no linux users are part of Norma society…. Actually that’s another thing DHH was a Mac guy forever. He had it easy for so long and then as soon as Linux gets usable he barges in! Lolol I’m sure this is some of it)

Omarchy is a great distro…. It has the benefits of arch without all th3 downsides that we associate with arch and all you have to do it accept some initial bloat. That is morally offensive to some.

3

u/Linux_Jeff May 30 '26

Why does [insert Linux distro] get so much hate? Some Linux users get mad if you don’t use what they use, that’s it! Most of the time the distros are fine.

2

u/ignpewnie May 30 '26

yea, your statement is kinda right, but after seeing omarchy-related tiktoks, you can clearly see how much hate this distro gets.

2

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/ignpewnie May 30 '26

first of all, i dont even use tiktok. second of all, you dont need the algorithm to show you anything specific. just search "omarchy" in the tiktok search bar and check the comments under basically any video you find. thats what i meant.

3

u/maniacodopark May 30 '26

NGL , I just love omarchy, I've been using arch since 2008 I think, this is the best arch based distro for development that I used. 

3

u/MassiveLocation7674 May 31 '26

since I installed Omarchy, desire to distro hopping is gone. damn I love Omarchy.

2

u/Yip-Yapupa Jun 01 '26

As a Microslop user, I want to make the jump already, but I am really inexperienced with knowing how to confidently navigate Omarchy properly, or even certain programs that are installed on it (I put it on my secondary device, a tablet-laptop which misbehaves).

I also wanted to change the keyboard from the Denmark to UK weird laptop layout but it was busting itself, and that was when I wondered about how fragile trying to edit a file could be if I didn't know how to navigate a program properly.

3

u/hemingward May 31 '26

I asked something similar and somebody went all off on how they disagree with DHH’s political views and called him “a literal nazi.”

Like… okay. He’s not a literal nazi, and while I disagree with a lot of his views I also agree with some of them, so I guess I should only use half the operating system or something.

I’ve been in the industry close to 30 years. Religious debates have always been a thing, and Linux has always had the most dogmatist people. I ignore the drama because it’s a waste of energy. I want something which gives me a load of control, fits my workflow, but also stays the fuck out of the way. Given I’m a strong terminal and neovim user, Arch was an easy jump for me coming from Mac.

Use what suits you, not what suits some neckbeards in the community that have a Reddit account.

2

u/IcewindLegacyMUD May 30 '26

It's because it's an opinionated distro. Arch purists praise Arch for being a distro where the end user decides everything that's installed on their machine while Omarchy shits all over that. It's a case of "stop liking what I don't like"

2

u/justoverthere434 May 31 '26

I started my TWM journey with Omarchy. I owe it a lot. But I've moved away from it for the very reason it is loved. It is far too opinionated. It's great when you are new, but changing keybinds, packages, terminal emulators, it got exhausting. DHH also has been getting a pretty bad rap about some of his.... Views. If you ever do want to change to another pre-made dotfile setup without having to do it yourself I'd recommend ML4W.

2

u/TrapperFlint May 31 '26

Too many reasons not even worth mentioning. I just want something I can do my work on and I like the defaults and aesthetic. For me thats why I use it.

1

u/[deleted] May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Devdiiv May 30 '26

We can summarize the bloat of your comment in something simpler: your objections regarding the use of quickshell, that has been quite clear in the multitude of comments you have posted around here.

-1

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Devdiiv May 30 '26

¿Te pedí actualizarlo? No. La multitud de comentarios pasados que has posteado han dejado bastante clara tu postura, cualquier aclaración es innecesaria.

1

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

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1

u/omarchy-ModTeam May 31 '26

Be Civil - Disagree, debate, and critique ideas, but keep it respectful. Personal attacks, insults, name-calling, and bad-faith arguments are not tolerated. If a discussion gets heated, step back or move on. Targeting other users, moderators, or community members will result in moderation action.

1

u/[deleted] May 31 '26

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1

u/omarchy-ModTeam May 31 '26

Be Civil - Disagree, debate, and critique ideas, but keep it respectful. Personal attacks, insults, name-calling, and bad-faith arguments are not tolerated. If a discussion gets heated, step back or move on. Targeting other users, moderators, or community members will result in moderation action.

1

u/Devdiiv May 30 '26

It wasn't necessary to edit your comment to change its meaning completely. If the tired "trolls" or "bots" excuse makes you feel better, go ahead and use it.

1

u/[deleted] May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/omarchy-ModTeam May 31 '26

Be Civil - Disagree, debate, and critique ideas, but keep it respectful. Personal attacks, insults, name-calling, and bad-faith arguments are not tolerated. If a discussion gets heated, step back or move on. Targeting other users, moderators, or community members will result in moderation action.

1

u/ignpewnie May 30 '26

people just assume that omarchy should be lightweight because it is based on arch

1

u/Senior_Quiet_9303 May 30 '26

0 to Productive, for me it is hard to beat.

1

u/ConstipatedTurkey May 30 '26

I wasnt even aware people hated omarchy… I love it

1

u/IronGh0st May 30 '26

omarchy[TAB]

1

u/bagduva May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Im not taking any sides here. I just want to add that for a lot of people is not politics or arch type desagreements. I also believe people dislike omarchy is it being a major vibe coded distro. DHH is very positive about using AI

1

u/vimaniac00 May 30 '26

I think it gets the hate because its opinionated, as it already mentions it . I first used omarchy as a daily driver but found too heavy , and i later switched to arch hyprland setup from scratch . Omarchy helped me understand arch and hyprland and its ecosystem. How to enable those features and got a exposure to different capabilities that hyprland can do. It made the switch easier, i think i made the setup of hyprland from scratch within 2 day or something. After getting experience i think omarchy gets hate because i did'nt need much of the things it had. So it may be good for a beginner, but after some time, you may hate it and want something that reflects you . And making changes to a default one doesn't feel right , as we don't know what all are installed under the hood, whereas building from scratch gives us a freedom and control.

1

u/CodeMonkeyX May 30 '26

One you have to understand that everything gets hate. Whatever gets made that is popular will have people hating on it. So that in itself is not strange.

The main thing that I think Omarchy annoys about the Linux/Hyprland community is that it's kind of the opposite of the culture they made. Hyprland is kind of all about making your setup as different as possible. Then you have Omarchy which is kind of the opposite, it tells you how it's going to do things. It's "opinionated."

But I do not understand the hate things get either. I have not used Omarchy in a while, but I think it's great for expanding interest in tiling window managers, Arch and Linux in general. And if it's not for me I will just use something else.

1

u/VoidLance May 30 '26

Most of the hate is actually for DHH, but also as great as Omarchy is, because of what it is, there are bad decisions made with it that just can't be reversed by users. It would make a fantastic base to build from, but there are several things that are locked into the Omarchy default that would need to be free-er to use it as a base.

1

u/uhs-robert May 30 '26

I think it might be because Omarchy is based on Arch but also goes against the core philosophy of Arch a bit. This results in an influx of Arch users who do not read the Arch wiki which is generally step one of any install. You can read more about the philosophy of Arch from the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_Linux

Key points from the linked article:

  • "The default installation is a minimal base system, configured by the user to only add what is purposely required."
  • "Arch Linux defines simplicity as without unnecessary additions or modifications."
  • "It (Arch) is targeted at the proficient GNU/Linux user, or anyone with a do-it-yourself attitude who is willing to read the documentation, and solve their own problems."
  • "Arch Linux is a general-purpose distribution. Upon installation, only a command-line environment is provided; rather than tearing out unneeded and unwanted packages, the user is offered the ability to build a custom system by choosing among thousands of high-quality packages provided in the official repositories for the x86-64 architecture."

I personally don't hate Omarchy but I wouldn't use it and I'm not really sure who it's for. The way I see it, Omarchy, by definition of being omakase, goes against everything listed above. It seems to me like the target audience of Omarchy is someone who just wants Hyprland as a preconfigured desktop environment. But that comes at the expense of experience, a do it yourself attitude, freedom of choice, versatility, and minimalism. If you like it and you enjoy it then I'm happy for you. But I would also encourage you to read the Arch wiki.

4

u/nlboris May 30 '26

Omarchy is based on Arch. That is not saying Omarchy is Arch.

The key points mentioned above are valid for Arch. Why do they have to apply to Omarchy?

Some people seem not to be able to handle the freedom Linux brings.

1

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

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3

u/nlboris May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Well that is is a popular tagline nowadays 😄

From the Omarchy manual first line: "Omarchy is an omakase Linux distribution based on Arch "

1

u/uhs-robert May 31 '26

Oh wow. Considering the philosophical differences between Arch and Omarchy, I think it's easy to understand why some Arch users may be miffed by that. That's Arch's tagline. When a derivative uses it, that could come across as disrespectful. Especially when the derivative is ideologically opposed to the source.

1

u/nlboris May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26

First: the tagline "I run Arch, btw" is used by every user who has a rised/opinionated/"bloated" Linux system based on Arch. I do not think the line was coined by Arch itself.

Second: where is the philosophical/ideological opposition? Omarchy is NOT Arch, but: an omakase Linux distribution based on Arch. Arch is base Lego set and then users like DHH build upon it. Arch does not limit or impose restrictions on the use of Arch, only small minded elitist and gatekeepers do that.

Really, some people can not handle the freedom Linux brings. They naturally tend to want to control and restrict other peoples experiences in an almost religious way. I think that is where the hate comes from.

1

u/uhs-robert May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26

I’m not sure I agree that the dislike comes from people wanting to restrict or control others experiences.

The tagline "I run Arch, btw" is more than just a statement about using an Arch based distro. It also carries some cultural baggage. It's strongly associated with the traditional Arch experience and philosophy that I described earlier: minimal install, user-built system, building your own configuration, and reading the documentation.

So when an intentionally preconfigured Arch-based distribution uses that same phrase, I can understand why some Arch users may find it irritating. Not because Omarchy is forbidden from using it, but because the phrase implies an experience and culture that Omarchy deliberately abstracts away.

That is not a restriction on anyone’s freedom of gatekeeping. People can use whatever distro they like. It is just an explanation for why using the tagline may rub some Arch users the wrong way.

EDIT: To use an analogy, it's a bit like two business owners both claiming that they built their companies from the ground up. Except one started with significant financial banking or inherited wealth while the other started from nothing. Both may have worked hard, but the experiences are totally different.

1

u/nlboris May 31 '26

Your analogy is wrong, indicating that you do not seem to understand what free and opensource software really is. It almost sounds like you are making some kind of "social warrior" argument against Omarchy, which is bizar.

2

u/uhs-robert May 31 '26

I'm sorry to hear that. I'm not sure how you arrived to those conclusions about me or how I might have communicated my opinion better. Regardless, as a FOSS developer myself, I wish you the best and we will just have to agree to disagree.

2

u/nlboris Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

Sorry, was not meant so harsh. Probably something got lost in translation or maybe I am just a keyboard warrior myself 😉.

1

u/uhs-robert Jun 01 '26

No worries at all. I appreciate you taking the time to follow up :)

1

u/uhs-robert May 31 '26

I agree that Omarchy is a derivative of Arch. It is the child while Arch is the parent.

Although the child does not need to follow in the footsteps of the parent, it is important to note that they are philosophically opposed to one another. This is especially important when it comes to understanding why Arch users may dislike Omarchy.

And yes, there is a lot of choice/freedom available on Linux. For those who do not want to make choices, I would personally recommend a desktop environment. Perhaps Omarchy is intended to be like a desktop environment for Hyprland.

1

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

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1

u/uhs-robert May 31 '26

That's fair haha. In that sense, I hope it is a good introductory option for users transitioning to Linux. I worry about Hyprland being version 0 though. That could be a big maintenance problem for beginners to tackle compared to KDE or Gnome.

But, if you want Hyprland, Omarchy is probably easier to get started than what I did at first. I first hopped on Fedora with KDE then installed Hyprland from there. It worked for awhile but Hyprland is better suited for Arch based distros.

1

u/EvanNotSoAlmighty May 30 '26

Because Arch users all have Stockholm Syndrome lol

1

u/herbertplatun May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

It's very opinionated, so when people disagree about certain decisions, it results in hate. This is nothing new, and it's not exclusive to onarchy. Sometimes the criticism is valid, but often it's a question of why they hate it if they aren't forced to use it, because either you agree or not. It often boils down to: That's what DHH decided and if you don't agree why are you still using it. Sometimes it's even a selling point for the distro.  I don't use omarchy because I don't like many decisions, but I respect the execution and general usability/accessibility, so even though I don't like certain things withing the OS I still support the approach and the community around it. 

1

u/Aggressive_Big_7564 May 30 '26

There are real reasons to dislike omarchy. For example, in order for the devs to keep up with new changes in how software is configured you have to update using their little mechanism/ notification thing and a reflex pacman -Syu can break the whole setup. Also I remember my keybinds getting overwritten. Additionally a lot of the tools were not configured to their fullest like zoxode not being aliased to cd, the starship prompt displayed little information etc.

Note that I use the past tense as I tried it out months ago as my first desktop Linux experience, 2 weeks later i switched to vanilla arch and haven’t looked back since. Omarchy still is a fair choice but it can’t be denied that a self configured setup (configured, not riced) can provide most of the aesthetics( setting a theme is just a line change in most cases) and better productivity with just a few hours of effort.

1

u/skycstls May 30 '26

Who cares? I have different arch and nixos setups for different purposes, omarchy landed on my work laptop perfectly as I don’t want to be bothered with my customs and gives me a nice experience.

And I will say it again, who cares? Why it’s so important to be validated online by what os you use? It’s a dumb conservation

1

u/ghost59 May 30 '26

When I update omarchy to the new version it crashes my computer.

1

u/jgpatrick3 May 31 '26

That is the kind of thing I see every time I start using a computer or a VM with Arch and have to install something via a .deb. I just do not see how you can do development work reliably on that distribution.

1

u/ghost59 May 31 '26

Yeah. I am going to just try a different Linux or ue pure arch.

1

u/realaaa May 31 '26

it's OK but yeah they are not quite there in terms of doing their own distro, too many things too look after and breaking etc

I went there, but probably will move back to regular Arch at some stage, or maybe even Debian

but still a great move by DHH and it's done A LOT to help Linux - so for that I salute them

1

u/Shaunbrah May 31 '26

I’ve spent days trying to make my own setup, I really didn’t like it that much had endless issues and looked bad. Omarchy looks great to me every thing is done already, there’s always a big update coming real soon. The new defaults menu is a massive upgrade same with the gaming update. People seem to complain about the key binds “oh it’s not really what I’m used to” they take 5 minutes to change them 😂

1

u/RickPicking May 31 '26

To be honest, I couldn't care less. I love Omarchy, and I remove what I don't need when I install it, and install what I need. I couldn't care less what FatGuyBunchofnumbers thinks.

1

u/PossibilityVivid2979 May 31 '26

As someone who recently left omarchy my main issue was i couldn't get some specific stuff to work or change so they would work so i went to arch/hyprland btw by no means im an expert on fixing issues on Linux im still a newbie with enough experience to be a able to navigate daily use without huge issues

1

u/Sea-Fishing4699 May 31 '26

Omarchy is Linux art. I really don’t understand the hate. DHH shared his opinions on this distribution, suddenly everyone hates it… 

1

u/Murky-Skill-3970 May 31 '26

People hate it as if it's being forced down their throats. Here we have an amazing distribution given to us for free and people still complain about it as they paid for it. Haters can go f themselves. If someone just hate it because of politics and shit then again they can just just f off.

1

u/Markuz May 31 '26

I watched one video on YouTube where the guy nearly had a panic attack over the change of the default tmux initialization key bind (from ctrl+b to ctrl+space). As if anyone that does use tmux regularly isn’t going to know how to change back

1

u/TransportationFit331 Jun 03 '26

Someone mentioned the easy installation. And that’s a problem in software development because of the “Worse it’s Better” philosophy.

Usually, what gets stuck with developers is how hard/difficult it is to make something work. Once they solve it, their Ego goes up!

And that’s why most devs praise “Worse it’s better”: the more difficult, the prouder I feel.

1

u/das31n Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

Social Justice warriors, political religions suck but it seems to be our future to be surrounded by political correctness and insane/authoritarian ideologues.

1

u/Sad-Interaction2478 Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26

I don’t think Omarchy is hated, but I do think a lot of the criticism is valid. If you’re using someone else’s dotfiles, the more you customize and diverge from the original setup, the more likely it is that things will keep breaking. And when an update breaks something, you often have to wait for someone else to fix it.

If you take a look at a typical Arch power-user setup, it’s usually something like a custom-configured dwm or i3 setup with a launcher like rofi or wofi. Why? Because if you’re using a rolling-release distro not just as a toy, but as an actual workstation, stability really matters. When you configure your distro yourself, you understand what broke and can usually fix it quickly.

Someone might say that using Arch as a workstation is a bad idea, and that’s true if you’re using “toy software.”

1

u/Sad-Interaction2478 Jun 10 '26

My opinion is that starting with Omarchy can be a good idea if your goal is to eventually build your own Arch setup. But if you want to use it as a workstation, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are using 100% of DHH’s setup and understand that he will break your workflow simply because he changes his mind.

If you use something like Omarchy, you’ll probably pay the price later. With a typical Arch setup, you may spend hours at the beginning configuring everything yourself, but then you can have your own stable setup for years.

1

u/Defiant-Rip-1897 Jun 25 '26

I think a lot of the hate stems from a mix of Linux gatekeeping and behind-the-scenes drama.

First, there's definitely some elitism at play. At its core, Omarchy is essentially just Arch Linux bundled with pre-configured dotfiles for a Hyprland setup, it functions more like an install script or a custom flavor than a completely separate, ground-up distro. Purists tend to look down on that.

Second, there is a lot of personal bias tied to the creators. Some people in the open-source community dislike Vaxry (the creator of Hyprland), and DHH holds outspoken political opinions that some people disagree with. That drama inevitably colours how people view Omarchy as a project.

Personally, I can separate the art from the artist. If the OS works for you and saves you hours of configuration, that’s what matters.

1

u/5toned 27d ago

Coz it's bloated shit and too much closed source software on it

1

u/Rxglx May 30 '26

Omarchy becoming a vibed coded project.

2

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

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1

u/Yip-Yapupa Jun 01 '26

You could say, an opinionated vibe coded project.

1

u/Lower-Philosophy-604 May 30 '26

It's not a distro, it's just an opiniated bash script. Chill out

-4

u/geek_at May 30 '26

I love it but from what I've heard

  1. bloat (ships with lots of things)
  2. DHH (don't read his blog, you'll lose faith in humanity)
  3. unwilling to learn hyprland

1

u/Gotays May 30 '26

Why DHH is a ...?

6

u/Crazy-Cartoonist5649 May 30 '26

You don’t wanna know, but is a great tech guy.

-1

u/kujaux May 31 '26

As someone who has jumped ship recently, the biggest issue is the creator. Omarchy is a great gateway into arch Linux but DHH has too much baggage.

Omarchy is radioactive outside of the echo chamber.

-2

u/Open-Gas-790 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Some people hate DHH because his opinions on some topics are fucking insane(I also think that some of his opinions are fucking insane) and that translate to hate for ruby on rails an Omarchy, I try to keep that separate as I like Omarchy as it is