Jordan Goodman's Blog
I have a gaming desktop from 2017. Unfortunately, it does not have a tpm2.0 chip, which prevents me from upgrading to Windows 11. My PC can run 90% of games on steam and is still going strong.
Rather than upgrading my PC or stick with windows for that matter, I decided to look for alternatives. I stumbled on the arch linux distro omarchy which was created by dhh, the popular programmer behind ruby on rails (among other things).
Installing Omarchy was a breeze. I just flashed the iso and booted from USB. After 15 minutes, I had a fully configured desktop. When you first login, you are greeted with a lovely wallpaper.
Then, I explored the shortcuts. There are a lot. Here are the ones I use the most:
- super + enter: open terminal
- super + shift + b: open browser
- super + b: close window
- super + 1,2,3...: switch desktop environment
- super + space: open apps
- super + alt + space: open settings
When you open new windows with these shortcuts, they are automatically sized via the tiling manager, which is a tightly integrated experience, much better than what I have experienced on MacOS or Windows. I feel like I can move much faster from idea to execution. Omarchy is extremely keyboard-centric, which is refreshing.
Additionally, omarchy comes pre-installed with common developer configurations and apps, like docker, neovim (with lazyvim), etc. I can tell dhh put a lot of thought into what an OS should feel like out of the box for a tech professional.
Overall, I highly recommend Omarchy for users who want more control over their OS.