Trying Hyprland, by means of Omarchy
I don’t remember exactly the first time I heard about Hyprland [1]. Maybe it was Leiser who showed it to me first, but I don’t keep a recollection about it. Regardless of how it was, I know that about two weeks ago I started to read about it more and more. I wanted it to try it.
In parallel, I read some posts by DHH about something called Omarchy and I didn’t pay too much attention to them, until Leiser told me he was using Hyprland. So I got curious, and went to find that Omarchy was Hyprland on top of Arch, curated and ready to enjoy. So I decided to try it immediately.
The good, the bad and the ugly
The good
As promised, it provides a comfortable enough environment for the modern desktop of a programmer.
Not all DHH’s choices are mine. I use Emacs instead of Neovim. I prefer Telegram over WhatsApp or Signal. I use Firefox and not Chromium (nor Chrome except when I’m forced to use it). I don’t have HEY! nor Basecamp accounts.
But overall, I could tweak my preferences for those programs in a matter of minutes just by editing ~/.config/hypr/bindings.conf, after having my choices installed.
Omarchy is indeed a very good starting point for those who, like me, want to try Hyprland but cannot devote too much time to the project. Thanks, DHH!
His choices for other tools are really good alternatives. I was considering switching to Kitty, but Alacritty seems pretty decent.
I’m exploring the other programs DHH selected. Many of them will likely be subsumed by my trusted Emacs. In Emacs I write (code or prose), navigate the files, encrypt/decrypt with gpg, and lot more. Nevertheless, I will still explore the other tools like Obsidian, Pinta, etc.
In terms of aesthetics I decided for the theme Ristretto. All the dark themes are very good, but I like this one better.
Overall, I’m learning a lot and enjoying the process.
the bad, and the ugly
I’m still in this initial phase of adjustment to the new world. I’m not really claiming the following are bad or ugly [3].
I have forked Omarchy’s repository because there are somethings in the bin/omarchy_menu which are not configurable:
edit_in_nvim() {
notify-send "Editing config file" "$1"
alacritty -e nvim "$1"
}
open_web() {
setsid chromium --new-window --app="$1" &
}
These I have switched for
edit_in_emacs() {
notify-send "Editing config file" "$1"
alacritty -e emacs -nw "$1"
}
open_web() {
setsid firefox --new-tab "$1" &
}
CapsLock as compose
I like using CapsLock to WRITE_ALL_CAPS_CONSTS in some languages. I have heard all the rationalization about a mechanical traits from the typewriters era being transfered into the digital world along with many other arguments. I simply find it comfortable to type const ASK_ABRACADABRA = 1 with the CapsLock on.
It’s muscular memory for me, I don’t think but instinctively reach for CapsLock when I need to type all caps for more that a couple of letters.
That being said, I’m asking myself questions: Do I use CapsLock outside Emacs? I could use an Emacs caps-lock minor mode for this in Emacs. However, I wonder if I will then get used to whatever keybind I could set to activate/deactive caps in Emacs and try to transfer that to any other typing scenario. I do press Ctrl + n in other programs, only to find out I’m opening lots of windows.
Keyboard layouts
I switch my keyboard layout to Spanish when I chat in languages other than English. In my previous setup the Spanish keyboard had the the key ' automatically composes with vowels (deadkeys).
So instead of pressing Caps'<vowel> (as I’m doing since I moved to Omarchy), I would like to just press '<vowel>.
Note
I’m kind of a purist and refuse to spell si (if, whether) when it should be sí (yes).
I’m not completely deranged and I rarely use the ¿ (opening question mark) or ¡ (opening exclamation mark) anymore. But I do type them from time to time in formal settings.
The ñ deserves its own key in a Spanish layout instead of Caps~ (which requires a Shift) and n — she is not dead [4]!
I have temporarily set my keyboard to kb_variant = intl, but is not satisfactory either. It allows me to type ñ, and accented vowels with fewer key strokes, but then English with 's becomes painful to type (e.g 'SPACEs, or I risk getting ś).
The solution to this seems to be fcitx5, instead of using hyprland’s input. I also want to use it’s keyboard layout per window, so I will try that.
The good, again
Omarchy is amazing. It has fulfill its promise to me. It’s decent, elegant and properly organized. I don’t share all DHH’s choices and that’s good. I’m still indebted to him.
Niceties and future projects
I want to create my own Plymouth script to have my own loader.
Potential Plymouth Logo and progress bar combined.
Footnotes
| [1] | I still sometimes misspell it as Hyperland. |
| [2] | I have many, many things to tweak to make my windows and workspace work comfortable for me. I used to have 4 static workspaces in Gnome, and I can live the default 5 of Omarchy. I’m considering/reading the options about special workspaces, persistent workspaces, etc. I don’t really care about active. All workspaces should be accesible and I should be able to put windows in them. |
| [3] | The good, the bad and the ugly. That’s a movie. D’you know? |
| [4] | I know languages evolve. Even the ñ was a product of necessity to spare some space while write Old Spanish words. It’s no longer surprising to be wished a “feliz ano nuevo” instead of a «¡Feliz año nuevo!»; if you look for their meaning you’re up for dad joke. Maybe AI dictation will bring the ñ back to life for a few more decades or centuries. |