From Omarchy to Pop_OS!
| 2 min read
I fell for the hype for a bit and was playing around with Omarchy on my ThinkPad. While I did like some of the opioniated setup (the theming system is very cool), a number of things bothered me.
First and foremost, the controversy surrounding DHH is hard to ignore. I wasn't particularly well versed in it, but after doing some research I didn't feel great about using the distro.
The second issue was the amount of AI. I said in my original article that some of the AI integration was pretty cool, and I still think so. Debugging a system crash with a model or leveraging AI to understand complex config files is a great use. But the problem is that everything is AI. It's a vibe coded Arch config, and that doesn't instill a ton of confidence when it comes to a daily driver.
All that to say, I'm now testing out Pop_OS! with the new Cosmic desktop. I've used Pop_OS! before, back when it was basically a GNOME shell extension. I even own a System76 laptop and Launch Heavy keyboard. I support what the company is doing, and their CEO as done actual good (like fighting against age verification in OSS). It's a product I can feel good about supporting.
So far, I'm pretty impressed! Cosmic has come a long way since the last time I tried out a beta. The theming is goregous and very customizable, workspaces is done very well, and the tiling is better than what's on offer in Omarchy land. I love that things were crafted rather than slopped together, and being built on Rust is a strong foundation.
There's still some things missing, but overall I look forward to daily driving Pop_OS! and Cosmic. Heck, I might even try revitalizing my interest in coding by creating a app or two using their UI kit!