Omarchy and Omacom Foundation

This is so unbelievably weird. Just use a real distro led by people who know how to do this, rather than former Mac users who figured out how to share their half-baked dotfiles.

Linux, brought to you by some of the world's most unpleasant people. I like the notion and hope a group of people with souls can put together a similar concept.

Do we really need to promote a Linux distro by the author of this blog post https://world.hey.com/dhh/wolves-sheep-and-gypsies-ba44af6a

As an experiment I've been running Arch + Hyprland (the stack Omarchy is based on) for a number of weeks on a Dell XPS 13 2026 16GB which is now well supported as of kernel 7.2. Good battery life, good screen, decent Linux performance for "normal" everyday tasks. 16GB min. is absolutely required for any fans of a web browser with multiple tabs open.

As a Mac user it would be a difficult transition to do this full time. Getting used to a tiling window manager, which is what Hyprland is, requires some time but for those who become fans of it it's a nice but different way to do things. Configuring Hyprland from scratch does take a number of weeks of initial setup + ongoing little tweaks and assembling the lego pieces one by one as you realize why you need each one (wallpaper mgr, lock mgr, notifications, idle mgr, on-screen volume/brightness display) but when you get there you get a pretty comfortable setup. A bunch of Gnome apps will also need to be installed - newsreader, maps, weather, etc - generally the Gnome apps look better w/ this tiling wm imo compared to KDE apps, and Gnome apps use a thin overlay scrollbar similar to MacOS unlike KDE apps which use a thicker always visible scrollbar. Momentum/kinetic scrolling on Linux desktops is an impossible goal atm - on Hyprland you need to install and configure hypr-kinetic-scroll which helps with a bunch of GTK-based apps, but in some apps either clashes with the built-in scrolling or has no effect depending on the toolkit used. But - a lot of the multimedia apps are based on KDE, so if you need OBS, DaVinci Resolve, VLC, game emulators (Dolphin etc) and a bunch of others, you'll wind up with a Frankensteined setup like it or not. There are also differences in menus, open file dialogs and other aspects not just between Gnome and KDE but also between versions of each (GTK 2 3 4, KDE/Qt 2 3 4 5 6). And you'll find out for ex. that Mathematica uses Qt because you go to open a file and see wut, some old Qt file dialog. Imo the email/calendar/contacts apps are all pretty ugly regardless of which ones you use. LibreOffice is pretty good - on Hyprland it runs using the GTK UI so it blends in well enough.

Of course you won't get the integration with the rest of the Apple stuff - clipboard, messages, contacts, notes. LocalSend works well enough an AirDrop alternative, but for the rest there's no good option.

Who is this Hyprland Linux desktop stuff for:
* Developers - for sure. Great home for dev work, containers, Docker, AI. Especially for refugees from craptacular Windows garbage who are not tied into Apple stuff
* Normal people - nope
* Productivity/multimedia people - can be. Though there are reports of various aspects of video editing that don't work well yet compared to Mac/Windows. But KDE is an easier path, and with a lot of the big multimedia stuff being KDE/Qt, might as well live on KDE
* Gamers - can be. Steam works well here, no real issues. Use Hyprland as a Steam launcher - great

Also - compared to the Linux alternatives, MacOS apps tend to be 2x to 10x or more better than anything Gnome or KDE. For ex. ForkLift, Screens, Things, Fantastical, Reeder, Rogue Amoeba apps, CleanShot, PixelSnap, and most off Apple's own apps and many others are significantly nicer looking, better designed, with significantly more features and settings, not a fair fight in any galaxy. The Gnome apps in particular tend to be extremely bare bones by design with typically very little configurability. A couple of examples - Mac Reeder vs. Gnome's "premier" RSS reader Newsflash. Newsflash looks superficially similar to Reeder but is imo garbage by comparison. Apple Maps vs. Gnome Maps - Gnome Maps is almost 100% useless, aside from being able to zoom into a location. I was completely unable for ex. to search for a McDonald's near the location that was visible onscreen, it only does a some stupid global search that ignores the current selected location. The Gnome Weather app once took 100% of a CPU core so I no longer keep it running. Some KDE apps are a better imitation of some of the apps on Mac because they tend to have more features. But I was unable to find any KDE RSS reader app that wasn't a horrible ugly piece of junk, even worse than Gnome Newsflash. Not putting Linux apps down, just know what you'll find there, and if your work focuses on the terminal rather than nice polished GUI apps you'll be good on Linux.

Omarchy has good ideas. Anything that pushes an alternative Desktop is useful.

Re: security issues: it's important to focus on the speed of the fixes. If this were Apple or Microslop it'd go 6 months under embargo (or until some website mentioned it) then get a last minute fix. We're not nearly as critical of human slop as we are of bot slop.

I’m excited to see the energy for an opinionated Linux distribution take off. Particularly given it’s a bunch of ex-Mac users.

We’ll see how long it takes to prove it “just works” or not, but for those of us on otherwise still good but unsupported Intel Macs I’ll appreciate the option if they can finally solve 5K under Linux.

I think the future is likely very bright as AI improves. An open source operating system definitely has a huge leg up on letting people customize and improve their day to day software.

New personal computing options are always a good thing, but I’m gonna personally always pass on stuff made someone who repeatedly espouses white supremecy arguments (https://www.flyingpenguin.com/dhh-calls-for-death-to-cows-as-he-writes-the-word-remigration/). If he walks like a duck and talks like a duck..

If this gets you to dip your toes into alternative operating systems, I’d say worth an experiment! Go for it. You’ll build confidence and understand macOS better by spending time away from it.

@ER Newsflash just works, what are you even talking about

Nothing makes me appreciate macOS more than trying to use Linux on the desktop for a few days. We Mac users can complain all we like about Liquid Glass, but at the end of the day, the alternatives are all so much worse.

"We Mac users can complain all we like about Liquid Glass, but at the end of the day, the alternatives are all so much worse."

My experience has been the exact opposite. I appreciate an OS that has traditional design sensibilities, like identifiable buttons and window borders. Any default theme in modern KDE, Gnome, or pretty much any non-insane distro looks a thousand times better than what Apple is currently putting out.

Omarchy looks like a fifteen-year-old edgelord on LSD came up with the visual design. Which is amazing if that's your jam; more power to you. But it's not representative of what modern Linux distros look like.

"MacOS apps tend to be 2x to 10x or more better than anything Gnome or KDE"

That's extremely fair criticism. It doesn't affect me too much, since almost everything with a GUI I'm using nowadays is either cross-platform, a web app, or something I've built for myself. But it's absolutely true that the best FTP client on Linux is at least a tier below something like Transmit or ForkLift, and that extends to calendars and other such tools.

I think that is changing, but as of today, it's the status quo.

> This is not your average open-source project. It has $10M in backing from the founders of Shopify, Stripe, Dell, Twitter, Cloudflare, Sesame, and 37signals, and now (Hacker News):

All these resources for this? Wtf. Just pay the GNUStep boys and put resources behind their work and we could probably get an open macOS-like distro finished by people who know what they are doing. All these macOS apps that are praised as being a tier above Linux could easily be ported to a distro with that kind of foundation.

So… The people involved in this project are, well, interesting we will say. Dreadful is a another term, but perhaps my view is not fully shared by all. I have no personal interest in this particular project, but the beauty of open source is to each, their own. As long as you give back changes of course, you can build your own hyper specific little niche systems. Nor does the fact a shitty bag of alleged AI slop scripts allegedly causing security issues surprise me one whit.

Linux is fine in many ways, has problems in others. Like pretty much anything out there. As a desktop system, I think this particular system is not the right one to persuade regular users to try Linux. I think it's too opinionated and often mistaken in its default configuration. Also, if they aren't taking security seriously, that seems, well unwise. Also, also, also, do regular people really want such a complex tiling interface as their default? I would guess no, given how many computer users work with apps full screen. But still, I'm sure it could carve out a niche if they people behind it were less controversial. Clearly I won't touch it given I can't stand interacting with the people involved.

As a personal aside, I still use X, because I prefer XFCE, and while XFCE is making progress towards Wayland support, I don't mind lagging behind with X in the meantime. Having said that, you can build a pretty good X powered Linux desktop, even in 2026. I'm typing this on a laptop, Latitude e6430, from roughly 2013, and a it runs pretty well. Mind you this system only has an i5-3340M, that's a dual core i5 that's about 13 years old. I do have 16GB RAM now, because during the year of RAMpocalypse, I somehow managed a cheap DDR3L ram upgrade. Yes, that's right even DDR3/3L ram has been afflicted by price increases. Thanks AI!!!! I have an old 128 GB SATA SSD in here because this is just my system I take to client's locations and other such things. I don't travel with my nice laptop after all. Anywho, this old beast does things like browse the web with Zen (Firefox fork), text editing tasks (script writing and such), basic media playback, and simple terminal stuff. Runs great for basic use. I've even done basic image cropping and conversions with command line tools.

Linux is better than Mac OS and even Windows for one singular reason, well, two if you accept open source is a better philosophy for coding than closed source. However, the real reason Linux is better is… are we ready… Linux can be whatever one desires. With enough work of course. My router runs Linux, my TV runs Linux, my Roku runs Linux, my phone runs Linux. My printer runs Linux. My two laptops run Linux. This is the power of such flexibility.

I've actually defended DHH on this very blog. He's since then posted such misinformed crap that I wouldn't voluntarily touch anything that he's responsible for.

It's outright maga supremacy ideas. Basically everything this excellent rant goes off on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9MubNsh3rs&t=2214s

Oh, a DHH project that sounds nice but actually sucks and is half-assed. Where have I heard that before? No thanks.

I'm with Plume on this, it looks like the fever dream of someone on LSD. I do want to see a better more coherent vision for Linux with greater focus on user interface refinement and high quality apps. However this doesn't appear to be the path to do so.

"I don’t think people truly understand just how determined I am at making Linux succeed on the desktop."

"There are many people who’d love to see this rocket blow up before it reaches the moon. (...) And, of course, any of the haters I’ve picked up in my quarter-century career speaking bluntly on the internet."

So apparently not determined enough to stop being an asshole and stop alienating people.

I think it's embarrassing that Michael enthusiastically updates this article without acknowledging that the runner of this "distro" is a right-wing extremist. This IS the time to be political.

Oeh noehz, a “RiGhT WiNg eXtReMiSt”, so just a person with common sense ideas. The horrors!

For reference, the "common-sense ideas" include comparing the Romani to animals and then suggesting that "when wolves get out of control, you shoot them."

I got criticized last week for mentioning Omarchy as associated with 37signals without saying that DHH, specifically, was involved. So in the update today I quoted him by name. He’s a controversial figure, so if anyone wants to avoid the project because of that—and somehow didn’t already know the connection—it should now be super clear.

I don’t know that much about his political views, nor do I want to. I don’t see it as my role to investigate people’s unrelated beliefs and pass judgement on them. I’m allowing the comments for now, but I don’t want to host a political forum.

For those expecting a disclaimer footnote or something, you should not read any quotes on this blog as endorsing the person being quoted, except insofar as I think they know something about the topic at hand. Like, if I quote Howard Lutnick talking about AI, that doesn’t mean I condone whatever he did with Epstein or even that I think he’s a good Commerce Secretary. It just means that I think his views on AI policy are relevant.

I didn't read it that way, sorry. I guess you think having homeless encampments in city parks and greens is acceptable solution to you? Increased crime, increased disease transmission, low quality of life in affected neighborhoods; all acceptable "compromises"? Liberalism used to believe in solving homelessness. Now it's an "identity", and all "identities" must be protected, right? Such a … nazi idea to not want feces or mentally ill where kids play.

> I didn't read it that way, sorry

Is this a response to me? Because there is no interpretation in what I wrote. It's a plain description of what DHH wrote. Anyone can look it up; it's easy to find and written in very straightforward language.

> I guess you think having homeless encampments in city parks and greens is acceptable solution to you?

Where did you get that from? I wrote nothing of the kind.

There are real problems to be solved. I don't believe that DHH is doing anything to help solve them. His posts are superficial and divisive. All he's doing is riling people up and making them angry at each other. Which I rather think might be his intention, because I don't think he's dumb. Surely, he knows what he's doing.

(Apologies if your response was meant for somebody else.)

> I don’t see it as my role to investigate people’s unrelated beliefs

I'm not sure if it is correct to call his beliefs unrelated. For example, his Omarchy work intersects with Asahi Linux. Surely, both projects having somewhat different political views is relevant for their cooperation.

DHH can't just say stuff about people and expect the people he talks about to not have any reactions to what he says.

It's not DHH's job to solve homelessness. He doesn't even need to propose an alternative in order to criticize the current policies.

Regarding your interpretation, you should go back and reread the blog post. He describes a problem that goes out of control due to inaction. We have similar problems here with wild hogs and jackals, and liberal mayors who refuse to take action because "nature". He then describes another (bigger) problem that is also actively inactioned. No, the action he wants is not shooting the gypsies.

DHH is depicted well by the "me" in this meme.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DOe3SDkkd81/?hl=en

>> I didn't read it that way, sorry

>Is this a response to me? Because there is no interpretation in what I wrote. It's a plain description of what DHH wrote. Anyone can look it up; it's easy to find and written in very straightforward language.

In the article you are talking about, DHH was making the point that when there is a problem you deal with it. If the problem is wolves, you shoot them. If the problem is illegal immigrants you deport them, etc.

He was comparing the problems of excessive wolves and people camping in the city, but very much didn't say or imply that they have the same solutions.

1980 called and wants its OS back. Does it have to look like Emacs? Wtf...

You can have Command+W close a window AND have a close button in the titlebar. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Also a close button is often faster for closing inactive windows while a keyboard shortcut will close only the active window. But ohh I guess you can just cycle to that window you want to close with a different keyboard shortcut first..then command+W.

Looks like an OS for Emacs users who want to flex nerd status and vibers. But the project has tons of money behind it so maybe it'll get some traction for a while. I don't want to eat a shit sandwich though, even if it's free.

@Plume I don’t think either project has any official political views. They’re both trying to appeal to people of varying beliefs. I assume that the other principals do not agree with DHH or Hector Martin on a variety of issues. Certainly the user bases are large enough and diverse enough that they don’t.

DHH and some others like to say stuff to get attention. I’m not saying people don’t have the right to react, but spreading the ideas of theirs that you don’t like is kind of playing into their hands.

> It's not DHH's job to solve homelessness

I never said it was. If he just wanted to complain about homelessness, he could have done that without all the other stuff. He didn't, so I'm going to judge him on what he did.

> Regarding your interpretation

Your summary of his blog post is 100% consistent with what I wrote:

"For reference, the "common-sense ideas" include comparing the Romani to animals and then suggesting that "when wolves get out of control, you shoot them."

> He was comparing the problems of excessive wolves and people camping in the city

Right. Which is what I said he did.

I think this is really easy. If you guys think comparing Romani to animals and putting "when wolves get out of control, you shoot them" into the same blog post is wrong, then you should go ahead and say it's wrong. If you think he's right to do that, then you should say so. What I don't understand is pretending that this is "an interpretation" and that he didn't do that. Because he did.

I would also like to point out that people were extremely angry about the left supporting violence when somebody we probably can't name on this blog was shot. How do you feel comparing people to wolves and then saying, "when wolves get out of control, you shoot them," ties into that?

> DHH and some others like to say stuff to get attention. I’m not saying people don’t have the right to react, but spreading the ideas of theirs that you don’t like is kind of playing into their hands.

I don't know if you're right. Maybe you are, maybe you aren't. I think this stuff moves the Overton window if nobody speaks up in response.

I'd also prefer this blog didn't have these discussions at all, because I find them grating, and I appreciate that you delete threads where people bring unrelated culture-war topics into stuff like how buggy OS X releases are.

But it's wrong to think that "politics is just politics". This stuff has real consequences for people. To the people DHH talks about, it's not just an edgelord doing stuff for attention. And whether you like it or not, talking about people on your blog isn't entirely valueless. Appearing here is a type of promotion, albeit perhaps a small one.

He’s a controversial figure, so if anyone wants to avoid the project because of that—and somehow didn’t already know the connection—it should now be super clear.

I don’t know that much about his political views, nor do I want to. I don’t see it as my role to investigate people’s unrelated beliefs and pass judgement on them.

So you know that he's a controversial figure, but "don't know much" about why? Your dancing around on this is absolutely an endorsement.

@vintner I’m not saying politics doesn’t matter, but I don’t want to get sucked into that. It’s not my area of expertise, and I don’t like talking about it. There are lots of people in the tech industry who have said offensive things unrelated to tech, done things that I disagreed with, etc. I’m not going to avoid mentioning them, pretending they don’t exist. I’ve already said that by mentioning someone I am not endorsing them. I think that’s a reasonable and easy to understand stance, same as any news publication. If I were to denounce certain people, that would muddy the waters and create the impression that since I didn’t denounce some other person that must mean I support them. Then I am being inconsistent or unfair or creating an obligation to report on all this divisive stuff. I would rather focus on the constructive things people are doing.

And it’s OK to not participate in these witch hunt campaigns against anyone that doesn’t regurgitate the “allowed” message, and whatever it is they did say having nothing direct to do with the technology itself.

Let’s leave that to the bsky clowns to lose their minds over:
https://x.com/jpschroeder/status/2094494281129918592?s=20

> against anyone that doesn’t regurgitate the “allowed” message

If you can't even bring yourself to admit what DHH actually says, and instead have to use euphemisms like "not the allowed message", maybe don't defend it.

@Michael Tsai
> I don’t see it as my role to investigate people’s unrelated beliefs and pass judgement on them.

And in my opinion, your blog is a better place for it.

https://inessential.com/2026/08/24/tech-choices.html

@Jason, and I agree wholeheartedly! For FckSake! What Michel is doing with this blog is something truly amazing in the era of blatant or disguised adds, shallow posts, misinformation and ignorance, clicks-whores, you name it. A blog strictly related to (mostly) technical details about all-things-Apple. By far the most informative place where one can read about what matters regarding Apple, sky above MacRumors and similar places. And practically the only blog where mac/i/iPad/watchOS developers can discuss some strictly technical things. And all that for free, no account needed, no subscription, just like in the old good days of ‘90s Internet.

Yet, some people just can’t keep their sh*t for themselves. “I think it's embarrassing that Michael enthusiastically updates this article without acknowledging that the runner of this blah, blah…” WTF?! Michael enthusiastically “updates this article” because he’s focused on technical and related aspects of it, not on anyone’s opinion of anyone’s political views, especially in times when accusing anyone of having “these and those” political views (or being a fascist, oh yes, that’s the favourite one) is so easily done without any consequences.

I believe most people coming here come for technical news/analysis/discussions, especially if they want to go find such things on places still safe from all everyday’s crap in news, social media and everywhere else. Yet, some people have the need to pollute such few existing places as well.

Now that Michael explained himself very well, I hope all you “politicians” will have the courtesy not to bother others with similar sh*t again. And if you’re “disappointed readers”, you can always take it to X, Instagram, FB… Or even to OSNews for what it matters, which used to be a nice, technical OS-related news site, until “socially aware and just” person(s) took charge of it and turned it onto "socially aware" personal blog.

Michael, apologies for acting like your advocate here.

"Yet, some people have the need to pollute such few existing places as well. (...) which used to be a nice, technical OS-related news site, until “socially aware and just” person(s) took charge of it and turned it onto "socially aware" personal blog."

What exactly do you think *you* are doing, other than polluting this place because you "can't keep your shit to yourself"? If you want this shit to stop, don't contribute to the thread.

@Léo Natan

idk man I disagree with DHH and apparently you that some people should be terrorized and harmed because of their identity

Nick, it's not what I am saying, and I don't think DHH is saying that either. Again, unlike some idiotic (to be charitable) or sensationalist interpretations here, nobody is advocating to shoot homeless people; shockingly, not even DHH.

Homeless people are often mentally ill; is it terrorizing or harming them if they are put in a mental institution, where their mental health can be serviced? Even if not mentally ill, is it not better to provide shelter to these people with warm food and running water, rather than let them defecate in parks and streets and live in their waste? This is something people used to believe in and actively try to solve, before the SJW brigade decided it was an "identity" to be poor or mentally ill, and so, must be preserved just as it is, instead of actually helping these people.

Look, I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you really need to read what DHH actually wrote before telling others that their interpretation is "idiotic."

> before the SJW brigade decided it was an "identity" to be poor or mentally ill

Why are you lying about what people believe? Literally *nobody* on the left is against providing food and shelter to homeless people.

This isn't the first time you've done it, either. You come up with some crazy fringe idea that nobody or almost nobody believes, and then get upset about it. What is the purpose of this?

https://marco.org/2026/09/04/bob-and-van
https://eschatologist.net/blog/?p=496

Be more like Marco.

I wish Marco had spent five additional minutes considering *why* he gets along with people he suspects are racists, and why other people might not have that same experience when being neighbors to those same people.

On second thought, I'm actually not entirely sure what Marco's point is. Is it "just ignore racist opinions and you can get along with people just fine", or is it "if you stop putting your racist opinions online, people wouldn't know that you're a racist and would get along with you just fine"?

I think both takes have issues, but from reading the post, I'm not sure which one Marco is advocating for.

Or, now that I read it yet again, is it "I should be able to be close friends with racists and not receive any criticism for it?" That's what he seems to say here:

"If I learn today that my neighbors have political views that my “side” considers unacceptable and unforgivable, should I be able to have dinner at their house"

I do, in fact, believe that if Marco finds out that his neighbors are, for example, Nazis, then he should not go have dinner at their house, and if he does go have dinner with his Nazi neighbors, then I will take that into account when considering what kind of person he is.

I think that should be a pretty uncontroversial take.

How about we start with not calling anyone we disagree with "racist" or "nazi" or "neo nazi"?

I didn't.

I don't know that this is an adequate forum to discuss a divide between how people feel about DHH's… shall we say controversial blog posts. I also think it's pretty rich of Marco to write this; he hasn't been shy to be quite opinionated on his podcast, including about politics.

1. Regarding the "all notifications being able to run arbitrary bash on your machine" bug: it feels like even the PR itself is written by an LLM, though that could just be Ryan's style. But certainly, it then gets, as the only responses, at least _three more_ LLMs, namely Copilot, omarchybot (using Codex), and responses from Claude. There _is_ one human involved in the conversation. What a relief. But there isn't really much of a conversation at all. The LLMs do what LLMs do; they respond to the prompt. A better prompt might have discussed the pros and cons of offering this _at all_. Do notifications need to launch _arbitrary processes_? appleOS at least has the entitlements infrastructure for this.

2. Then, as far as the $10M funding is concerned… "Now it’s time to build a proper institution. Durable, resilient, and competent. That’s what we’re doing here on Basecamp now. I’m spinning up teams for every facet of responsible distro management" What does that mean? Teams implies plural. So, what, a dozen people? That would burn through those $10M rather fast. What's the business model here? What are the goals, even? What do those people _do_? None of the human beings involved in those linked PRs appear to be Basecamp employees. It's a distroy. It's largely non-sexy work. I don't object to making an opinionated distro (or "omakase", if you want to be pseudo-fancy); I thought that was a strength of early Rails, but there's a reason distros aren't flying off the shelves. One more distro isn't going to move the needle.

3. "But by the end of the year, nobody at Apple or Microsoft is going to be laughing." Apple hasn't been in the business of selling operating systems since macOS became entirely free, over a decade ago. It hasn't been a growing business for Microsoft in a long time either. He seems to think this is a "threat" of sorts, but as long as people keep buying Apple hardware (strong contender for the best laptop brand), and use Microsoft services like Azure and 365, do either of them care much?

4. Conversely, if Omarchy _does_ have compelling features (I haven't tried it), they have a Dropbox problem. It's much cheaper for either Apple or Microsoft to _copy_ the feature than it is for Omarchy (again, with what business model, even?) to pull more people towards them. This is why OpenAI wants to make its own hardware. If people like ChatGPT, but they like the Siri AI platform integration more, the real goal is to get people to buy a fully integrated piece of OpenAI gear. (I don't think people _will_ — remember Rabbit? Or Humane? — but I get the strategy.) People don't leave their entire tech stack behind for something new because that something new has one compelling new thing.

@Sören I'm not sure copying a "feature" here would work. The type of people that would be intrigued by the featureset on offer here are the type of people that like to tinker and control every aspect of their environment (at great expense in other aspects), something that not Apple or Microslop can really offer. This can be extended for the larger Linux ecosystem in general.

One exception to this is the growing "gaming on Linux" audience that are just fed up of CoSlopilot and other Windows 11 slop, and so are installing blackbox (for them) immutable distributions that just let them log in to Steam and other stores and play games. Most of these people will quickly go back to the comfort of Windows if enough buzz comes out that "M$ finally fixes Windoze".

> The type of people that would be intrigued by the featureset on offer here are the type of people that like to tinker and control every aspect of their environment

I agree, but I find that fundamentally at odds with "by the end of the year, nobody at Apple or Microsoft is going to be laughing." Raspberry Pi and Arduino have big tinker markets, but didn't kill the Mac (on the contrary, it's doing better than ever) nor Windows. And "it's a Linux desktop, but for tinkerers"… honestly, that seems almost tautological, workplace Linux deployments (e.g. RHEL) notwithstanding.

>This can be extended for the larger Linux ecosystem in general.

What can? What is the actual innovation here? It's just an opinionated Linux for tinkerers. Nothing wrong with that, but that's all it seems to be.

>One exception to this is the growing "gaming on Linux" audience that are just fed up of CoSlopilot and other Windows 11 slop

I think Microsoft might feel more threatened by e.g. Steam Machine here, although their launch was hurt by RAM prices. But, again, Windows licensing isn't a growing business for them anyway. Nobody buys a retail copy of Windows 11.

I see a lot of hype here, which is also totally fair, but I don't see much to suggest that _this_ is what Linux was waiting for to get a critical mass.

There's also the other aspect that desktops aren't the growing thing anyway. The _real_ critical-mass end-user Linux has already been out for a decade and a half, and it's called Android.

What I meant was that in general, there is very little an Apple or a Microslop can do to win back a general desktop Linux user. Copying some superficial features into the OS won't help.

Microsoft makes most of its consumer Winslop money from OEM licensing, which is not trivial and increases hardware cost. If more and more gamers buy their computers with Linux, which can happen if enough time is allowed to pass until Microslop stops slowing down computers with React "Native" and garbage technologies. Some percentage of the gaming Linux users will convert to general desktop Linux, which, in turn, will lead to even more hardware sales without a Winslop license. It adds up. There has been a substantial jump in gaming Linux users. The numbers are still small, but they were almost zero just two years ago. It's on Microslop and Nasloppa's terrible leadership.