Omarchy Is Not A Distro

Omarchy 并非一个发行版

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

Omarchy is a beautiful, modern & opinionated Linux distribution by DHH. Omarchy 是 DHH 最新的心头好。Omarchy 是这样描述自己的： Omarchy 是一个由 DHH 开发的、美观、现代且具有鲜明个人风格的 Linux 发行版。

As a longtime frequenter of r/unixporn, it was immediately apparent to me that omarchy is not a linux distribution in any traditional sense — in fact, the entire “omarchy distribution” amounts to little more than Arch linux + DHH’s personal dotfiles. The whole thing should probably just be a few gists. 作为 r/unixporn 的常客，我一眼就能看出 Omarchy 在传统意义上根本算不上一个 Linux 发行版——事实上，整个“Omarchy 发行版”充其量不过是 Arch Linux 加上 DHH 的个人配置文件（dotfiles）。这整套东西其实只需要几个 Gist 就能搞定。

Ultimately I think that any interest in Linux desktops is a good thing, but I take serious issue with omarchy’s posturing — why is omarchy such 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? 归根结底，我认为任何对 Linux 桌面的关注都是好事，但我对 Omarchy 的姿态有严重异议——为什么 Omarchy 会成为 DHH 的工作重心？为什么它会有会议、赞助商和周边商品？尤其是当像 Debian 这样历史悠久的发行版几十年来一直为资金和赞助发愁时？

I think there are 3 things going on here:

1. The advent of LLMs has made unix ricing orders of magnitude easier & more broadly interesting.
2. Apple’s hardware lead & overall design philosophy is falling apart.
3. DHH realized this, and is cashing in on a wave of new, inexperienced users looking for a cool-looking Linux distribution. 我认为这里有三个原因：
4. 大语言模型（LLM）的出现使得 Linux 美化（ricing）变得容易了几个数量级，也更具普遍吸引力。
5. 苹果的硬件领先地位及其整体设计理念正在崩塌。
6. DHH 看到了这一点，并正借此从一波寻找“酷炫 Linux 发行版”的新手用户身上获利。

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 glut of DHH’s personal preferences. 一个经过深度配置的 Linux 安装必然是高度个人化的。如果你安装了 Omarchy，你安装的并不是一个 Linux 发行版，而是 Arch Linux 加上一大堆 DHH 的个人偏好。

Example time Omarchy includes a window manager called Hyprland — here are a few preconfigured keybinds that come from omarchy: SUPER + SHIFT + ALT + A: opens “https://grok.com” SUPER + SHIFT + C: opens “https://app.hey.com/calendar/weeks/” SUPER + SHIFT + E: opens “https://app.hey.com” SUPER + SHIFT + ALT + X: opens “https://x.com/compose/post” 举个例子 Omarchy 包含了一个名为 Hyprland 的窗口管理器——以下是 Omarchy 自带的一些预设快捷键： SUPER + SHIFT + ALT + A：打开 “https://grok.com” SUPER + SHIFT + C：打开 “https://app.hey.com/calendar/weeks/” SUPER + SHIFT + E：打开 “https://app.hey.com” SUPER + SHIFT + ALT + X：打开 “https://x.com/compose/post”

Default 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 a bunch of proprietary software, including:

• 1password
• claude-code
• spotify
• typora 默认快捷键竟然是打开……Grok？X 的发帖对话框？hey.com？认真的吗？更糟糕的是预装软件列表。你的默认 Omarchy 安装包会包含一堆专有软件，包括：
• 1password
• claude-code
• spotify
• typora

And dozens of preloaded scripts to install such refuse as:

• brave browser
• dropbox
• nordvpn (lol) … what are we doing?? These are not the kinds of packages that any sane distro would “ship” to its users. And I am using the term “ship” generously here, because omarchy doesn’t “ship” any packages - it relies entirely on Arch and the AUR. 以及几十个预装脚本，用于安装诸如以下垃圾软件：
• brave browser
• dropbox
• nordvpn (笑) ……我们到底在干什么？？这些根本不是任何一个正常的发行版会提供给用户的软件包。我这里用“提供”（ship）这个词已经很客气了，因为 Omarchy 根本不“提供”任何软件包——它完全依赖于 Arch 和 AUR。

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. 最后还有一点让我个人感到冒犯：一个 37 行的 Ghostty 默认配置文件。为一个本就设计成无需配置即可使用的终端提供默认配置……我简直无语到翻白眼……如果你是 Linux 新手，请跳过 Omarchy，去安装一个真正的发行版，而不是某个人的个人配置文件。如果我想要垃圾软件，我直接装 Windows 就好了。

~ jes