Arch Linux but Better

I'm finally installing Arch Linux on my laptop, the distro that takes multiple hours to install, which is wild. But apparently, that's the perfect endgame distro that all Linux users default to in the end anyways. Ever since I switched to Linux, I've been seeing non-stop comments about when I'm going to use Arch, and I think that day is here. As a Linux noob, hearing about how difficult it is to install has scared me off, until now. This is Omachi. It's a Linux distro that combines Arch, plus Hyperland, plus whatever else the developer wants to give you, hence the OMA part of Omachi, which stands for Omakase. It's a culinary experience where you open your mouth, and you let the chef shove food down your mouth. Not literally, of course. In this case, it's the pre-installed apps, the appearance, all the extra things that come with Omachi. But does Omachi count as real Arch, or is it cheating? And most importantly, could this be the endgame distro that replaces everything else for me, including Mac? First, let's start with how we got here. One doesn't just install Arch to begin with, unless you want to use Arch, by the way. A couple of months ago, I was a bonafide Windows user, like you. I had been using it all my life, and I never stepped away from the comfort zone. But alas, Windows had ruined itself, presenting me with ads, random in-operating system content that I didn't ask for. So I decided never again. I started by switching to Mac, but in that journey of switching, I realized, why not Linux? It's essentially the same as switching to Mac, which is another operating system. Anyways, the journey began. It started with Mint Cinnamon, and jumped through various other distros, until I finally gained the confidence to say, I think it's time for Arch. So here we are, sort of. I did try to do a manual Arch install, but I didn't get anywhere. So I tabled it, for now, until Omachi presented it itself to me as the solution to all of my problems. Maybe you can have the hardest to install a distro, and one-click install it too. So I was too scared to put it on my laptop's SSD, so I got another SSD, and then changed it up, and now here we are. So when you first open up Omachi, you're just in a state of shock. Sure, it's pretty, but where is everything? At the top, there's some numbers. I'm assuming those are workspaces, I've seen those before. In the center, there's the day and time, and if you click, it becomes a date. Cool. And on the right, there's a series of symbols of various sorts. First things first, I need to set up Wi-Fi. Without internet, this thing is basically useless. I clicked on the Wi-Fi button, and it instantly detected my close-by Wi-Fi network, so that's a huge win. The Wi-Fi works, yeah. But then, it got tricky. Clicking on the screen of my Wi-Fi network did nothing. Pressing up and down arrows did nothing. What kind of wizardry am I expected to use to just connect? Then I did what any reasonable person would do, I keyboard spammed every button, until I got something. Just kidding. I consulted the documentation, because that's what you should do when you get problems. Read the docs. But there was nothing on Wi-Fi anywhere. It seems like this is too beginner of a problem to even include docs for, so I went to the next reasonable place, Reddit. There must be other people who have no idea what they're doing, like myself. So I followed the instructions, pressed tab, cycled it through to the next section, and I just had to follow the on-screen directions, press space, and the password prompter popped up. Why not use Enter though, like normal people? Apparently the Wi-Fi connectivity is done through another piece of software called Impala, which is a TUI, a text-based user interface for managing Wi-Fi on Linux. They're the ones who specify how you navigate their software. While we're on Wi-Fi, we might as well do Bluetooth, which thankfully actually works. It saw all my Bluetooth devices close by, and connected without a hitch. So with internet on and earbuds in, I went on to the next issue. Where are my programs and my apps? While perusing the docs, I saw the navigation guide, which is filled with keyboard shortcuts. Apparently when the system first starts, you literally can't do a thing with the mouse alone. Yes, that's what the docs say. I'm not sure how I feel about that one. I actually like my mouse. But after looking back and forth between the docs and my laptop, I slowly started to figure out where everything was. Superspace opens up a list of programs, just like the spotlight on Mac, and then there's pre-programmed key bindings for things like the browser, the terminal, and chat GPT. Wait, what? It's definitely an opinionated distro if it has chat GPT, and it even uses Chrome, and programs like OBS are pre-installed. So far, so good. But I don't see what the hype is about. It feels like Fedora, but with a different skin on top, with the pretty wallpapers, clean fonts, and the special menus. I mean it. The themes are spot on. You can cycle through the pre-installed ones with a simple keyboard shortcut. They're beautiful. But then I started opening up multiple programs at once, and I finally understood the magic of Hyperland. It tiles automatically. That's really cool. But how good is that? Or is that just a gimmick to show non-Hyperland users what they're missing out on? Now, obviously, this setup is a little much. I've got an ultra-wide monitor and a desk the size of a small island in the Pacific. But if you're a normal person who just wants a clean, sturdy workspace, Autonomous, today's sponsor, is way more practical. I've been using their SmartDesk 5 and ErgoChair Pro in the office for a few months now. The sleek color and the build of the desk feels right at home within our new space, holding up to any daily wear and tear. Even after months of coffee cups, tripods, and random gear, the surface somehow still looks brand new. Something I can't exactly say for some of our other desks in the office. There's absolutely zero wobbling while I work, and I'm not bothering anybody with loud creaking. Not to mention the inbuilt cable management tray and cable routing system keeps things from getting too chaotic behind the scenes. Plus, the desk pairs perfectly with the ErgoChair Pro, providing full body support to those moments where you just don't feel like standing and working. My favorite part still has to be the height adjuster on the desk. Not having to worry about jostling any critical controls thanks to their inlaid height adjuster keeps me headache-free. Sure, it's not exactly perfect. Blasting my shoulders while holding up the tray for cable management feels like a little much, but maybe that's a perk? You tell me. From now until November 16th, you can earn up to 30% off during their pre-Black Friday sale or up to 50% off during their Black Friday flash sales from November 16th through the 30th. Plus, any discount you pick up will be valid with our code SETUPSAC, locking you in for an additional 5% off on all orders. If you're looking to finally make the jump to a standing desk, make sure you pick up the Autonomous Smart Desk 5 and the ErgoChair Pro today. On my laptop display, tiling is actually really annoying. It's great once you only have two windows open, but the moment I introduce a third, it all goes downhill from there. Each window doesn't have enough space anymore, which means I have to close something only to reopen it seconds later and while you can untile them and move them around like Windows or Mac, it can get pretty annoying since they just sit there in the middle of your screen. Plus, there's a strange transparency effect. You can't mix and match between tiled windows and untiled ones. I don't know, it's just not practical, but there must be something missing that I'm missing. There's hordes of people that are obsessed with tiling managers like Sway, Aerospace, AwesomeVN and Hyperland. Some research shows that they help with minimizing mouse use, thus increasing efficiency. Well, that sounds great. I'm gonna have to read some more docs though, aren't I? Ah, dang it. Always reading docs. And after some serious reading and committing to using Omarchi as my main workstation rather than running back to my MacBook, I unlocked some serious power. I mean serious. The first thing I did was uninstall and install a bunch of apps and web apps to my most commonly used programs. And here's the cool part. I can make any website into a web app. So just because Omarchi doesn't have a Notion app or a Discord app doesn't mean I can't open it like a regular program. I can do YouTube, Google Drive, Google Mail, YouTube Music. The options are endless. Now that that's set up, I need to do something very important. And if it doesn't work, well, that's probably the end of Omarchi. And that's connecting my CalDigit TS5 Plus dock to my laptop. So plugging it in doesn't just work automatically. I also have to authorize it within the computer. It's a security thing. It's normal. I've been through this before. But the command that I usually use, which is bolt, it doesn't work. And to install it, to install bolt, I use something I had never used before. Here lies the real first difference between Arch and other distros. Instead of using sudo apt or sudo dnf, we're now using pacman, which is not the yellow guy that just eats the ghost. It stands for package manager. Someone real creative came up with pacman. Also, did you know that pacman's origin story was puckman? Sorry, I'll leave you alone forever now. Thanks. Little did I know, Omarchi actually has a visual interface for installing packages by pressing super, alt, and space, and going down to install. That easy. This is how we made web apps before, but you can also install packages, use the AUR, the Arch User Repository, and a bunch of other things too. And even gaming? After a couple more commands, I got the dock to work, and holy moly, Omarchi looked beautiful on my Samsung G9 47-inch OLED monitor. Ah, stunning. And while tiling was a terrible experience on my laptop screen, it actually improved my productivity on my big, ultra-wide monitor. I'm one of those people that just have a mess of windows piled on top of each other with small corners poking out, so I can pull them up and use them just to hide them back again. Omarchi lets me do that, but in a organized way. However, with great power comes great responsibility. Now, instead of constantly using super space to open my programs, I wanted them to open with just keyboard shortcuts, which meant I had to configure Hyperland. Oh man, this stuff is scary. One, because I had never touched it before, and two, I still have no idea what I'm doing. Are those are the same thing? It's not like a system settings manager like on Windows or Mac or other distros. Hyperland uses .config files that you modify to change the settings. But before jumping into something hard like key bindings, I wanted to do something ultra easy to gain confidence. Install a theme. That morning, I had found a beautiful theme off Reddit, and figured I would give it a try. After all, I was tired of the pre-installed themes. They're pretty, but you get tired of them. And let's just say ricing, which is changing the appearance of your UI, goes hard, but installing it was super simple. You go into the menu, go to install style theme, put the link in, press enter, boop. It's that easy. Now you can just constantly change your themes however you want. So now I figure I can do key bindings because I can do themes. Boy, was I wrong. I went to the menu, set up key bindings, and opened up a config file, full of lines in what appeared to be code. Most of it made sense, since you just follow the format of whatever was in there already. Eventually, I learned to make aliases of what I wanted to open using the dollar sign. I'm not a programmer, so all my lingo here is most likely wrong. And after an hour, half hour or so, I had the perfect list of key bindings to open everything I use on a daily basis with purely the keyboard. So here's the real magic of having Omachi on an ultrawide. Since I can make an unlimited number of workspaces and scroll through them easily using super in the numbers and each workspace can have about eight windows open before they become too small, that means I can have 40 windows open that I can just easily flip through. Now, why would I want or need to do that? I don't know, but it's cool. I can put all my stuff for one project on workspace one, all the management stuff on two, all the things I check like email and discord on three and just go on and on and on. And yes, I know it's overkill and unpractical sometimes, but it's cool. Speaking of other unpractical things that are not cool, there are a lot of weird bloat programs pre-installed on Omachi. Stuff like WhatsApp. I mean, really, why? I immediately uninstall all of that. Thankfully, the process was easy. Instead of going to install, you go to uninstall. But through trying out every piece of software, I found one that I now have installed on every device in the office building. It's like Apple's AirDrop, but it works with all devices, not just Apple. If your devices are on the same network connection, then they can talk to each other. It's so convenient and it's called Local Send. Apparently, it's open source and you can install it on your phones, your laptops, your PCs, everything. You can send text, files like photos and PDFs or even entire folders of files in just a click of a button. It's funny that throughout this whole experience, the best thing so far is just this random small program. It's not all rainbows and butterflies though. There is one thing that has been absolutely killing me about Omachi. It ruins all my screen recordings and it's the inability to minimize Windows. Am I just an idiot or is there really no way to minimize Windows in Omachi? Apparently, it's because there's nowhere to dock them. Minimizing in Omachi really means sending them to another workspace, which is fine, but with OBS, that means I would be recording the wrong workspace, which sucks. And if I wanted to minimize, according to Reddit, I should use a different DE like KDE or Cinnamon. The other problem, it's a smaller one, is the screensaver. I love how cool it is, it looks like the Matrix, but I also hate how often it shows up and how distracting it ends up being. So I went into screensaver settings to see if I could turn it off, but the .config file doesn't give me anything to work off of. All it has is the Omachi logo. So I'm going to table that for now and dive into some personalization settings, like the fingerprint reader. And the framework has one, so that's cool. All you have to do is go into setup, security and fingerprint, you move your finger around a bit and boom, it just works. Now I can use it anytime I want to do something like terminal stuff, installing new programs. Honestly, I think this is the first distro that has let me do this and I didn't even know my Framework Laptop 13 had a fingerprint reader until Omachi. So after a mostly fun experience, the initial excitement of Omachi wore off. The beautiful distro was no longer exciting to turn on and use. Despite all the unique and efficient features, I thought to myself, I want my own version of Arch, not something someone is spoon feeding me. Heck, I've already installed a ton of programs, I've installed a bunch, I've changed a ton of settings and there's more I want to do, but I just haven't figured it out yet. Should I have just figured out how to manually install Arch instead of coping with Omachi? But alas, I didn't have time to think about that yet. It was in the middle of the work week and I had some Discord calls I had to get on. But was my beacon mic just going to work? It uses a Windows-based software, an exe file and those things are notoriously known for not working on Linux. So why would this be any different? Well, with my newfound Linux knowledge, I knew to use something called Wine, which makes exe files run on Linux, in theory. So I downloaded something called Wine32, which was supposed to do the trick, but it didn't work and neither did Wine-GUI. And after some anxious waiting and clicking around, there it was. Beacon was on my list of programs. Except when I tried to open it, nothing happened. So after using Omachi for about a month, I honestly think it's just a bloated version of Arch and Hyperland that sort of cripples how you learn Arch. Is that too harsh? Maybe. While Omachi works in most ways that I need it to, there are a lot of things that don't make me happy to use it anymore. I'm going to summarize my Omachi experience in one word, but personally, that's all it might be. It does everything I want it to do for work, but it's sort of inconvenient too. I had to modify a ton of things before making it usable and if I'm going to be tackling and troubleshooting so many problems anyways, maybe it would have made more sense to do it on Arch, the final boss. Sure, I wasn't personally able to manually install it myself, but I would rather take the hard road than this road. But without Omachi, I don't think I would have gained the confidence to even face the abyss that is Arch. Maybe this is all in hindsight because Betty a month ago was scared of Arch, but Betty now is tired of taking the easy road. With all that said, there's no perfect distro. I might actually have found the perfect distro when I started, which was Mint Cinnamon. If you want to see that experience, watch this video right here. Bye.