Omarchy Review – The BEST Linux Distro I’ve Ever Used

Before I jump into my brief Omarchy review, I have something I need to confess…

I’m a DHH fanboy. Now that we have that out of the way.

I’m also running Omarchy on a Framework 13. DHH is using a Framework laptop (and Desktop, I think) so I’m sure there are at least a few quirks that have been accounted for. But still, it’s great and I know hundreds of others are running it on other hardware and having a great time.

My Overall Omarchy Review: It is AWESOME

I can’t wait to see where this goes in the long run, but it is already my favorite Linux experience I’ve ever had.

It reminds me of the first time I used MacOS. Clean, intuitive, and fun.

These are a Few of my Favorite Things

Dev Env

The install experience has to be my favorite part of the packaged (pun intended) experience so far. It was so easy to get up and running with my dev environment that I actually wanted to start writing code as soon as the few additional packages I needed were installed.

Web Apps

Web apps feel like first-class citizens. They’re just Chromium windows, but that is what makes them so great. I can easily login via my Bitwarden extension and I’m up and running in. Adding them to the search experience makes it feel so cohesive. This really captures what most business apps should be, just a browser window without the distractions.

Keyboard First

I don’t like using a mouse for productivity tasks. A mouse is great for gaming, but when I’m in a flow state, I don’t want to take my fingers off my keyboard. (Hence why I purchased a $400 keyboard…multiple times.)

Omarchy really delivers on this front. 90% of tasks can be completed without using your mouse.

What I Needed To Customize

I’ve only been using Omarchy for two weeks, but so far the only thing I’ve needed to add was adding a script to manage my Wireguard connection to Waybar.

I also added quite a few web apps that I use on a daily basis (Google Drive, Personal Blog, etc.) I wouldn’t really count those as “customization” as the ability to add them is incredibly straightforward and as mentioned before, they’re just Chromium windows.

Conclusion

That concludes my Omarchy review, for now. I expect this to be a multi-year saga and I look forward to providing additional Omarchy reviews along the way.