I'm not going to comment on DHH himself here (huge mixed feelings on many levels), but people completely underestimate the power of curated experience.
If there was a piece of software that needed 3 colors set, and there was a choice to set the 3 colors yourself, or pick a color preset that some person spent time combining just right, a lot of people would appreciate the latter.
Sitting and making subjective taste-based considerations is a huge energy and time sink, and takes a certain kind of individual to actually enjoy. Even if you did take time on one thing, you still hope that you don't have to do that on others. Having somebody sweat these details for you, so your baseline is strong, is a lot of value in practice, because we're human and we like nice things, and knowing that even if we don't customize it, somebody already did with great care.
Why even listen to premade music. You can just throw together samples/notes yourself. Why listen to lyrics/poems, you can just put together some words yourself. Why hire an interior designer. You can just make it the way you like yourself. Etc.
Ubuntu was curated by Mark Shuttleworth for years. GNOME OS and KDE Linux are also fairly curated. It's not clear that DHH's curation of Omarchy actually created a better distro.
Yes, I'm baffled that more commenters aren't confused by this. Even with the full context of the drama surrounding DHH, I still have no clue what the author is trying to imply, or why they feel the need to imply it instead of stating it.
It's especially bizarre because they start off saying "Thank me, I just listened to a 5 hour interview with DHH so you don’t have to," and then they don't say anything at all.
Omarchy's definitely been polarizing. I've been using it since the first release and its been my daily driver for the last few months. Folks can say what they want about DHH and argue that Omarchy is just dot files... but hot damn if it doesn't give me the breath of fresh air I needed from the Apple ecosystem. I've always loved Linux, but could never stick around. I didn't have the patience for the constant tweaking or trying to figure out how to properly scale display resolution. Omarchy offers some great convention out of the box and is being worked on by a passionate group of people. That's part of what has made the internet great. We're in a new era, why not have a little fun with it?
Having fun alone in your homelab is one thing. But encouraging others to use the thing you made, despite the systematic lack of attention to security, is quite another. I don't want YouTube video titles to have arbitrary code execution on my machine and I'm not sure why anyone would.
Though if it really is an OS dedicated to AI, as the article says, maybe the vibe coded security holes are what give it a reason to exist at all.
If by "people can say what they want" means some people are ok to dismiss casual racism because it doesn't affect them and they can enjoy the fruits, so be it.
I tried it out and it has some interesting perks, but will ultimately suffer from a smaller community.
We know how much rails suffered before it had to grow up and scale, instead of "just buy more servers". This doesn't mean it's wrong, or right, only that it's not universal.
My guess is omarchy outright, or some of it's experience will transfer to other distros.
And I finally got an intro to ArchLinux where I got to spend more time using instead of tinkering. I value building more than tinkering or sys admining even if I know how to do it.
Lex Fridman is still shilling for AI? I remember his interview with Hassabis where he depicted Hassabis as the good guy and both were very, very concerned. Very concerned indeed.
The DHH episode is literally sponsored by Shopify:
Omarchy exists because there's a real demand for a power user OS that's not controlled by Apple and Microsoft. Windows sucks and MacOS now occupies an extra 18GB or something crazy for their internal models that's not an opt-out.
Omarchy is interesting, not for tokenmaxxing, but that's it's just easier to work between whatever steps you are working through as a pipeline, whcih can include ai steps, or not one per window.
I realize that's the window manager, but being up and running on a ready to go setup in 10 minutes is something neat too that I hope can become an option for other distors.
DHH is way past fuck you money, he does what he wants, you can hate / like it as much as you want, but claiming some grand conspiracy to get people to use more AI??? Just dumb.
If DHH believes so much in his distro, why doesn't he put a few million of his own in it, like Shuttleworth did with Ubuntu? Why does he need a GoFundMe for his hobby?
After using omarchy for almost a year, and every time I mentioned it people dogpiling about how it's just a bunch of config files not an OS - I tested that idea. Turns out they're pretty much right. Fedora + hyprland + a little messing around with config files to get the shortcuts I'd become familiar with back = about 95% of omarchy. Glad to be rid of any link to DHH, and happy to have a deeper understanding of what comprises my desktop environment. 10/10 would recommend.
this is kinda true but a lot of distros are like this.
If I installed debian and hyprland i'd basically be able to set up the same config as i have on arch now. Linux distros are basically just pick which package manager you like + whatever config you think is closest to what you want
Absolutely, but the amount of embodied work in arch or debian or fedora is massive, but i got from fedora to almost-omarchy in an evening.
It’s clear from their repos that lots of work goes into omarchy, it just turns out that’s not work that i need - or it’s work that’s already part of a more batteries-included distro like fedora.
Before i had come across any of the racism and incipient fascism he’s spouted online, I was already kinda annoyed by how AI-forward omarchy is. A huge part of moving to linux from macOS is not wanting ai crap shoved down my throat. Omarchy doesn’t shove, but it sure does offer it up all over the place
This doesn't seem like a crazy take. The situation is horrible all around, and the reaction to the situation is hard to demonize from a humanistic point of view. This isn't the wealthy complaining about the homeless sleeping on benches. It's a dramatic crisis perpetuated by people who are not, largely, mentally ill in the sense that some homeless people are.
Starting off with an analogy about shooting wolves frames things in a decidedly violent way that makes me uncomfortable. I would not, ever, compare a group of humans with a group of animals that i am advocating for culling. I know enough history to know who does that.
> The vagrants are literally shitting in the bushes
This is a simple failure of civics. If you have people somewhere, you provide them toilets or you get shit on the ground. Cities do it when festivals and street parties happen - but they don't do it when homeless poeple show up, and then they spin it as disgusting behaviour on the part of the people. Everybody shits. If you had no access to a toilet, or place to dispose of your shit, you would shit on the street or in the bushes too. Fixating on shit is also an attempt to rile up your disgust reaction, and link it to a group of people.
> Partly because it didn't tolerate vagrants and homeless people taking over public spaces (as has happened in so many American cities)
A leading lie. American cities have problems with public homelessness because they have no social safety net, and an economy that drives up homelessness. Crackdowns, like my city has done, only spreads the problem out and makes providing services like toilets impossible. It wasn't as bad before not because it "wasn't tolerated" but because the economic conditions were less harsh in the postwar era.
> You have to act. You have to protect the sheep. Standing idly by while your livestock is devoured by predators or your neighborhood is taken over by migrants is a pathetic abdication of any functioning society's most basic duty to its citizens.
This is a straight up fascist mentality. Us vs them. Protect our weak from their strong. It leads VERY dark places. Ask yourself this - why are the wolves the migrants? Could you not just as easily frame them as the sheep in need of protecting? Have they not been abandoned and pushed out by society? Without a barn to sleep in, the sheep will wander where they aren't welcome - is that the sheep's fault, or the shepherd's?
Tried it on my 2010 iMac. Works like a charm, interesting setup and ui choices. Not sure I’ll stick with it but I’m impressed.
I'm not going to comment on DHH himself here (huge mixed feelings on many levels), but people completely underestimate the power of curated experience.
If there was a piece of software that needed 3 colors set, and there was a choice to set the 3 colors yourself, or pick a color preset that some person spent time combining just right, a lot of people would appreciate the latter.
Sitting and making subjective taste-based considerations is a huge energy and time sink, and takes a certain kind of individual to actually enjoy. Even if you did take time on one thing, you still hope that you don't have to do that on others. Having somebody sweat these details for you, so your baseline is strong, is a lot of value in practice, because we're human and we like nice things, and knowing that even if we don't customize it, somebody already did with great care.
Why even listen to premade music. You can just throw together samples/notes yourself. Why listen to lyrics/poems, you can just put together some words yourself. Why hire an interior designer. You can just make it the way you like yourself. Etc.
Ubuntu was curated by Mark Shuttleworth for years. GNOME OS and KDE Linux are also fairly curated. It's not clear that DHH's curation of Omarchy actually created a better distro.
This is a good thread about why it didn't work: https://x.com/dvdsgl/status/2096775107989672007
I don't get it, the post makes a bunch of weird insinuations and then proceeds to just end without actually answering the question.
Yes, I'm baffled that more commenters aren't confused by this. Even with the full context of the drama surrounding DHH, I still have no clue what the author is trying to imply, or why they feel the need to imply it instead of stating it.
It's especially bizarre because they start off saying "Thank me, I just listened to a 5 hour interview with DHH so you don’t have to," and then they don't say anything at all.
Let me guess, is the reason money?
Omarchy's definitely been polarizing. I've been using it since the first release and its been my daily driver for the last few months. Folks can say what they want about DHH and argue that Omarchy is just dot files... but hot damn if it doesn't give me the breath of fresh air I needed from the Apple ecosystem. I've always loved Linux, but could never stick around. I didn't have the patience for the constant tweaking or trying to figure out how to properly scale display resolution. Omarchy offers some great convention out of the box and is being worked on by a passionate group of people. That's part of what has made the internet great. We're in a new era, why not have a little fun with it?
Having fun alone in your homelab is one thing. But encouraging others to use the thing you made, despite the systematic lack of attention to security, is quite another. I don't want YouTube video titles to have arbitrary code execution on my machine and I'm not sure why anyone would.
Though if it really is an OS dedicated to AI, as the article says, maybe the vibe coded security holes are what give it a reason to exist at all.
People are having fun with linux. The stain on Omarchy is purely DHH. His politics cannot be ignored.
Putting politics aside, Omarchy contains a ton of bad technical decisions. I also question the non-discoverable UX but I realize that's subjective.
It doesnt contain technical decisions its just configs on top of arch vibe coded by a racist.
If your issue with Omarchy is politics, then it's probably not just DHH.
But I'm going to guess that means you haven't actually looked into it deeply.
idk who DHH is and I don't know (or care) what their opinions are
Omarchy is a free OS, and it looks very interesting
I don't think it's wrong to avoid it because of DHH's opinions, but I don't think it's right to either
If by "people can say what they want" means some people are ok to dismiss casual racism because it doesn't affect them and they can enjoy the fruits, so be it.
I tried it out and it has some interesting perks, but will ultimately suffer from a smaller community.
We know how much rails suffered before it had to grow up and scale, instead of "just buy more servers". This doesn't mean it's wrong, or right, only that it's not universal.
My guess is omarchy outright, or some of it's experience will transfer to other distros.
And I finally got an intro to ArchLinux where I got to spend more time using instead of tinkering. I value building more than tinkering or sys admining even if I know how to do it.
It's ok to downvote this, doesn't mean it has to be comfortable to have some chats, it's where we all can learn by starting with ourselves.
Edit:
Not fishing for upvotes.
It's ok to realize something you liked using might come from something that's not good and working through that.
Other people who are willing to overlook it: https://omarchy.org/patrons/
Thanks for convincing to try omarchy on my old macbook.
p.s. do left not realize how this guilty-by-association public-lynching is damaging their brand?
Who is guilty by association?
nobody is guilty for using omarchy, but I guess I don't get why you would want to associate with someone who sucks?
Anyway, is it left wing to be anti-racist these days? Yikes.
You may want to look up the paradox of tolerance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance
So can we apply it to intolerant immigrants that destroy our society or tolerating that type of intolerance is ok?
Your bigotry is not welcome here.
I'm an intolerant immigrant myself, so jokes on you.
I wonder the same. I'll take my downvotes and enjoy the omarchy experience.
Lex Fridman is still shilling for AI? I remember his interview with Hassabis where he depicted Hassabis as the good guy and both were very, very concerned. Very concerned indeed.
The DHH episode is literally sponsored by Shopify:
https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep501-sa
On the bright side, this is the best and most honest sponsor disclosure I have ever seen!
Omarchy exists because there's a real demand for a power user OS that's not controlled by Apple and Microsoft. Windows sucks and MacOS now occupies an extra 18GB or something crazy for their internal models that's not an opt-out.
that's just... normal linux. you can have any damn linux distro for that
Omarchy just looks cool, maybe that's why it got funding.
Omarchy is interesting, not for tokenmaxxing, but that's it's just easier to work between whatever steps you are working through as a pipeline, whcih can include ai steps, or not one per window.
I realize that's the window manager, but being up and running on a ready to go setup in 10 minutes is something neat too that I hope can become an option for other distors.
Just dumb.
DHH is way past fuck you money, he does what he wants, you can hate / like it as much as you want, but claiming some grand conspiracy to get people to use more AI??? Just dumb.
If DHH believes so much in his distro, why doesn't he put a few million of his own in it, like Shuttleworth did with Ubuntu? Why does he need a GoFundMe for his hobby?
I believe he did contribute $1 million initially [1]
[1] https://omarchy.org/news/2026/08/omacom-foundation-launches-...
It exists because DHH needs his safe space where he can post racist rants without getting banned
While building on top of open source that was contributed to by enough people who didn't look like him.
I want a bumper sticker that says "I bought into Rails before DHH went insane".
After using omarchy for almost a year, and every time I mentioned it people dogpiling about how it's just a bunch of config files not an OS - I tested that idea. Turns out they're pretty much right. Fedora + hyprland + a little messing around with config files to get the shortcuts I'd become familiar with back = about 95% of omarchy. Glad to be rid of any link to DHH, and happy to have a deeper understanding of what comprises my desktop environment. 10/10 would recommend.
this is kinda true but a lot of distros are like this. If I installed debian and hyprland i'd basically be able to set up the same config as i have on arch now. Linux distros are basically just pick which package manager you like + whatever config you think is closest to what you want
Absolutely, but the amount of embodied work in arch or debian or fedora is massive, but i got from fedora to almost-omarchy in an evening.
It’s clear from their repos that lots of work goes into omarchy, it just turns out that’s not work that i need - or it’s work that’s already part of a more batteries-included distro like fedora.
I wouldn't confuse a lot of commits with a lot of work. Their dot files are heavily vibecoded and have been a constant stream of security issues.
If Omarchy turns into something good, I'll wait for the de-Hitlerized fork.
whats your gripe with DHH? Honest question.
Before i had come across any of the racism and incipient fascism he’s spouted online, I was already kinda annoyed by how AI-forward omarchy is. A huge part of moving to linux from macOS is not wanting ai crap shoved down my throat. Omarchy doesn’t shove, but it sure does offer it up all over the place
I'll let you judge for yourself. This is just one post of his among many similar. https://world.hey.com/dhh/wolves-sheep-and-gypsies-ba44af6a
This doesn't seem like a crazy take. The situation is horrible all around, and the reaction to the situation is hard to demonize from a humanistic point of view. This isn't the wealthy complaining about the homeless sleeping on benches. It's a dramatic crisis perpetuated by people who are not, largely, mentally ill in the sense that some homeless people are.
Starting off with an analogy about shooting wolves frames things in a decidedly violent way that makes me uncomfortable. I would not, ever, compare a group of humans with a group of animals that i am advocating for culling. I know enough history to know who does that.
> The vagrants are literally shitting in the bushes
This is a simple failure of civics. If you have people somewhere, you provide them toilets or you get shit on the ground. Cities do it when festivals and street parties happen - but they don't do it when homeless poeple show up, and then they spin it as disgusting behaviour on the part of the people. Everybody shits. If you had no access to a toilet, or place to dispose of your shit, you would shit on the street or in the bushes too. Fixating on shit is also an attempt to rile up your disgust reaction, and link it to a group of people.
> Partly because it didn't tolerate vagrants and homeless people taking over public spaces (as has happened in so many American cities)
A leading lie. American cities have problems with public homelessness because they have no social safety net, and an economy that drives up homelessness. Crackdowns, like my city has done, only spreads the problem out and makes providing services like toilets impossible. It wasn't as bad before not because it "wasn't tolerated" but because the economic conditions were less harsh in the postwar era.
> You have to act. You have to protect the sheep. Standing idly by while your livestock is devoured by predators or your neighborhood is taken over by migrants is a pathetic abdication of any functioning society's most basic duty to its citizens.
This is a straight up fascist mentality. Us vs them. Protect our weak from their strong. It leads VERY dark places. Ask yourself this - why are the wolves the migrants? Could you not just as easily frame them as the sheep in need of protecting? Have they not been abandoned and pushed out by society? Without a barn to sleep in, the sheep will wander where they aren't welcome - is that the sheep's fault, or the shepherd's?
And in case you don't want to judge for yourself: https://drewdevault.com/weird-guys/#dhh
Why omarchy exists; so a dumb racist script kiddie can pretend to be a big boy.
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