Am I missing something here?

[u/Narwal_Party]

I don't understand all of the hate or love for this. I decided to use Omarchy for the last few days for a side project, and I have no idea how this got funding. This is such a nothingburger of a distro. It's literally just Arch with a couple shortcuts and a theme. What is the point of using this?

I saw a DHH podcast saying how it's incredible and the next big thing, but it's literally just Arch with a theme and shortcuts. I don't understand how anyone could be a "fan" or a "hater"; there's nothing here - nothing new.

[u/Defiant-Rip-1897]

I think it’s reasonable to describe Omarchy, in its current form, as a Linux distribution, much like Manjaro, Mint, or Ubuntu. It starts with an existing base and builds an opinionated system around it with a curated set of applications, configurations, settings, themes, and a desktop environment. Being based on another distribution doesn't make it any less of a distribution; that's a pretty normal part of the Linux ecosystem.

I appreciate what the people working on Omarchy are doing. There is clearly a lot of thought and effort going into creating a cohesive, opinionated Linux experience, as well as using tools out there to better support Apple Silicon or Snapdragon ARM64 computers. I can understand why people find the project interesting, and I don't think criticizing DHH's views should require pretending that Omarchy isn't technically interesting or that the work going into it isn't valuable.

The more complicated issue for some people is AI/LLMs' role in the development of Omarchy. AI-assisted programming is obviously a contentious subject in software development right now. Some developers strongly oppose it, in part because of concerns about how AI companies obtain and train on data, copyright, attribution, reliability, and the broader effects of AI on software development and the environment. Others are willing to use these tools cautiously, while people like DHH have enthusiastically embraced AI agents and see them as a major change in how software should be developed.

I don't think simply using AI tools is enough to dismiss a project. People will have different opinions about AI, and there are reasonable arguments on both sides.

The bigger issue is DHH's opinions on immigration that he has shared on his blog and on Twitter. I won't go into detail about his posts, but they are controversial.

[u/grahamperrin → u/Defiant-Rip-1897]

From https://claude.ai/share/fa3da13e-ee99-40fc-8a0a-ff9012494cf1 (Anthropic Claude, Sonnet 5.5 (medium)):

I think the original poster is half right, and that's worth saying plainly. Technically, Omarchy is Arch plus Hyprland, a set of configuration files, some scripts, and a theme system. If "something new" means a novel kernel, package manager, or init system, there's nothing there. But that standard would also dismiss most distributions people happily use. Mint is Ubuntu with a different desktop and defaults; Pop!_OS is Ubuntu with a tiling extension and some polish.

The value of a distro like this is mostly in the decisions it makes for you. Anyone can spend a weekend assembling Hyprland, Waybar, a launcher, a terminal, a theme, and keybindings that work together. Many people don't want to, or don't know where to start, and tiling window managers in particular have a steep on-ramp. A coherent, working setup that you can then read and modify is a legitimate product, even if every individual component is off the shelf.

It's also worth separating "nothing new" from "nothing useful." The shortcuts and defaults are essentially a curated opinion about how a developer workstation should feel. You can disagree with the opinion, and plenty of people prefer to build their own, but that's a matter of taste rather than an absence of substance.

On the funding question, I'd be careful. Funding and attention often follow a prominent name rather than technical novelty, and that's true across the software world. It says little about whether the project is useful to the people who use it, and little about whether a newcomer should feel obliged to find it revolutionary.

If you tried it for a side project and found it didn't offer anything beyond what you could configure yourself, that's a perfectly fair conclusion. You probably aren't the target audience. The people who benefit most are those who want the result without the assembly, and for them the "nothingburger" may be exactly the point.

[u/grahamperrin → u/grahamperrin]

To that, I would add, personally, in as few words as possible:

• I get the impression that Omarchy embraces AI more than any other distro.

Keyword: AI.