I Tested Omarchy 4 (Quattro): The Arch Linux That Anyone Can Use!
If you’ve been hanging around Linux forums lately, you might have heard people buzzing about Omarchy—a sleek, futuristic Linux distribution based on Arch Linux.
Created by David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH)—the creator of Ruby on Rails and co-owner of 37signals—Omarchy is designed to take the power of Arch Linux and the eye-candy tiling experience of Hyprland, and package it into something anyone can install and use right out of the box.
Here is a breakdown of what makes Omarchy 4 (Quattro) special, how to install it without headaches, and what the experience is actually like.
What Makes Omarchy Different?
Setting up Arch Linux and Hyprland (a modern Wayland tiling window manager) from scratch can be a nightmare for non-experts. You often have to spend hours editing text files just to get basic window controls, shortcuts, and themes working.
Omarchy solves this by giving you an already configured system:
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Pre-configured Hyprland: Built-in cheat sheets and sensible keyboard shortcuts.
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Integrated AI Assistants: Comes pre-packaged with AI agents (like OpenCode or Gemini) that have an "Omarchy Skill" built right in, allowing them to adjust system settings for you.
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Rich Application Suite: Ships out-of-the-box with useful tools like Chromium, Discord, Kdenlive, LibreOffice, LocalSend, OBS Studio, and Btop.
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Plugin Ecosystem: You can install custom plugins directly from the Omarchy menu or website to add new features.
Installation Tips & Troubleshooting
Testing out Omarchy can be exciting, but there are a few important things to keep in mind before you start:
1. Avoid Virtual Machines (For Now)
If you try to run Omarchy inside a virtual machine (like VirtualBox or VMware), you might just end up with a black screen and a mouse cursor. Because of how Hyprland and Wayland interact with VM graphics drivers, it’s best installed on bare metal (a real computer/drive).
2. Use Ventoy Instead of Rufus
If you get an Installer exited with status 1 error during installation, the tool used to create your bootable USB might be the culprit. Flashing the ISO (around 5.8 GB) with Ventoy often succeeds where Rufus fails.
3. Installation Speed
Once boot issues are out of the way, the installer is blazing fast—taking under 3 minutes to set up a clean disk!
Daily Driving: Tiling vs. Floating Windows
By default, Omarchy uses Tiling Mode, meaning windows automatically split screen space so you rarely need to touch your mouse. If you are new to tiling window managers, here are the essential shortcuts to know:
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Super + Space: Open the main Omarchy App Launcher. -
Super + K: Open the built-in Shortcut Cheat Sheet. -
Super + Enter: Open a new terminal. -
Super + W: Close the active window. -
Super + F: Toggle full screen.
Don't Like Tiling? No Problem!
If you prefer traditional floating windows:
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Press
Super + Ton any individual app to make it float. -
Hold
Super+ Right Click & Drag to resize floating windows. -
Download the Float Mode plugin from the Omarchy plugin hub to get a quick toggle right in your top bar.
Built-In AI That Actually Controls the OS
One of the coolest features in Omarchy is how AI is integrated into the system configuration.
If you accidentally move your top status bar to the side or break a layout setting, you don't need to dive into complex config files. You can open your AI agent (like OpenCode), ask it in plain English to "move the status bar back to the top," and the AI will modify the configuration file for you automatically.
System Performance & Verdict
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Memory Usage: Around 3.5 GB of RAM at idle. (A bit higher than stock GNOME or KDE due to the rich Wayland effects and background services, but well worth it for modern hardware).
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Overall Vibe: Futuristic, minimal, and visually stunning.
Final Thoughts
Omarchy takes away the frustration of configuring Arch Linux from scratch while preserving its speed and power. Whether you are a seasoned developer or a curious tech enthusiast who wants an OS that looks straight out of a sci-fi movie, Omarchy 4 is definitely worth testing out.
Check out official releases and documentation at omarchy.org.
I’ve also made a video on this topic — you can watch it below.
Check out my other posts, I post useful tutorials and tech tips, maybe you will find something useful 😉.