Omarchy or Omakub? #

Omacom has two distro remixes on offer. Here's how to choose:

Omakub #

Omakub is the beginner-friendly option. It's built on Ubuntu, the most popular Linux distribution, and it uses Gnome, a very familiar desktop environment to what you'll find in Windows or on the Mac. It's still geared towards keyboard use with developers in mind, but it's easier to get orientated, if this is your first experience with Linux, and if the idea of needing a text editor to setup your monitor arrangement seems intimidating.

Omarchy #

Omarchy is the more advanced option. It's built on Arch Linux, which has a reputation for being difficult, and uses a tiling window manager called Hyprland that's heavy on configuration files and short on GUI affordances. It does ask more of the user, but it's by no means some crazy hardcore nerds-only setup. It is, however, decidedly LINUX!

Making a choice #

I built Omakub when I first switched to Linux. I ran it as my daily driver for over a year. It's an excellent choice for anyone making the switch from Windows or Mac for the first time.

But today I run Omarchy. It's not as familiar, it's more of an acquired taste, but boy, when you acquire the taste for tiling window managers, it's hard to go back to using the mouse to drag windows around. The whole system just flows through your fingertips!

Omarchy is also the more visually appealing and coherent option. Omakub has to express its design through an existing desktop environment that's already quite particular about how things should look. I think it's managed the compromise very well, but with Omarchy, I've been able to take things much further.

If it's not obvious which of the two is right for you, have a look at the Omakub video and then the Omarchy video back to back. You'll get a good taste for both.

And, hey, the price for either is a fat zero! So it's easy to try one out, see what you think, then change your mind and try the other afterwards. You'll usually spend less than 20 minutes setting each up on a reasonably fast internet connection. You can't really go wrong!