I’ve been a loyal Mac user for well over a decade. I came from a MacBook Air and progressed up to my current machine, a 2021 MacBook Pro M1, 16GB 1TB. In the last ~5 years, it has handled everything I’ve flung at it with the exception of running any seriously large models.
2026 has dramatically changed how I use my machine. I’m spending way more time in the terminal, I usually have multiple sessions running at once, utilising tmux for long running sessions and generally using it as a more traditional computer. At some point this year I started using AeroSpace, an i3 like tiling manager. I don’t even know what i3 is, but I knew I wanted a way to manage workspaces and automatically tile my windows nicely. Alongside this I’m very keyboard oriented, switching workspaces and tabbing between windows etc.
macOS has been becoming a bit of a mess. The latest Tahoe has fixed a few things, but it definitely doesn’t feel like the workhorse GUI I enjoyed in the Mavericks era. I feel I’m sometimes fighting it and would like more OS level customisation options that didn’t feel like a hack, given the way I’m now working.
I’ve been following Omarchy since the beginning but had never tried it. I’m a big Linux fan, I’d happily run it if I had the confidence to actually use it as my main machine.
I think a big part of it is having the freedom of my own machine. Being able to customise small things and tailor it around how I actually work. I don’t really want to spend my time fighting macOS to make it behave in ways it clearly doesn’t want to. At the same time, I don’t want to spend three weeks building a Linux setup from scratch.
I know I’d end up down a rabbit hole. I’d install something, spend hours looking at window managers, spend another night messing around with a status bar, change terminal three times, find some guy’s dotfiles on GitHub and before I know it I’ve spent a week pissing about with my computer instead of actually using it.
That’s kinda where Omarchy seems to hit the sweet spot for me.
It’s opinionated enough that most of that stuff is already done. It looks really nice out the box and more importantly it seems to be designed around how I’m now using my computer anyway. Terminal, keyboard, multiple sessions, tiled windows, workspaces etc. It feels like it’s been built for developers who work like me rather than me trying to turn macOS into that.
Apple Silicon has really been the blocker though.
I absolutely love the M chips. My M1 Pro is nearly 5 years old and it’s still an absolute beast. I’ve genuinely never felt like I needed to upgrade it. Pretty much anything I throw at it just works and it barely seems to care. Local models are probably the first thing I’ve done where I’ve actually started hitting the limits of the 16GB RAM.
So going out and buying an old Intel Mac or some random laptop just to run Linux doesn’t really work for me. It feels like I’d be giving up one of the best bits of my current setup just to change OS.
Asahi Linux have done some unreal work getting Linux running on Apple Silicon and I’ve watched that for a while too. But again it was always something like Fedora out the box and then I’d be back to figuring out how I wanted everything set up and learning a load of stuff along the way.
I probably would enjoy that tbh, but I’d also get absolutely nothing done.
That’s why Omarchy starting to venture properly into Apple Silicon support has really caught my attention.
I tried it through TryOmarchy recently and it kinda just clicked. Obviously that’s not the same as actually living in it every day, but it was the first time I thought I could genuinely see myself working like this.
The speed they’re making progress on the Apple Silicon stuff is ridiculous as well. They are loud about the fact frontier AI models are helping massively with projects like this and things seem to be moving stupidly quickly.
I’m definitely not at the point where I’d wipe my MacBook and install it. I wouldn’t and won’t move until the Apple Silicon support is properly there. I need my laptop for work and I don’t want to be debugging my WiFi or wondering if sleep is going to work when I close the lid.
But I’ve gone from being interested in Omarchy to thinking there’s actually a decent chance I could be using it within the next year.
I’d still want a macOS machine around. I’m too embedded in the Apple ecosystem and there are things I’d still need it for. So I think my plan is probably to pick up an older M1 MacBook Air or something once Omarchy on Apple Silicon is a bit further along and properly try it.
I’m at the point where I don’t really want to run it in a VM, and playing about with it for an hour. Actually put my projects on it and try working from it for a week or two.
If I hate it then I’ve got another M1 MacBook which is hardly the worst problem to have.
But I’m weirdly excited about the prospect of finally running Linux properly.
I’ve liked Linux for years but there’s always been something stopping me actually moving to it on a laptop. Omarchy feels like it might finally be the version of Linux where I make the switch.