If you liked Ormachy then I think you'll feel very comfortable with CachyOS + Sway. (I can't in good conscience recommend hyprland anymore)
The CachyOS team deliver sane configuration files to start a desktop. Then delve into how to setup greeters and lock apps, it's usually small changes in each config file with your own images and setup.
this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2026
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Cachy has been on my radar for a while, too. Definitely worth checking out, thanks!
tl;dr but I think ISO 27001 is a good one
Actually, you should aim for a lower ISO to avoid noisy picture.
I see you are an ISO 5800:2001 fan of culture
Hmm, another solid call-out. ISO 100 gang, where you at?
A solid recommendation. I'll bookmark it for a rainy day.
Niri! I think you can do the branding stuff? Or Gnome+PaperWM extension!
I'm confused. If you're technically fluent enough to discern a "perfectly serviceable arch install" you're probably savy enough to apply some theming to the dozen or so greeters and DEs available for Linux distros.
A fair point! You'd be surprised where some people's deficits lie. I've used Linux for many years, but never bothered messing with the theming for greeters or the like before -- I never really cared. 🤷♂️
So while I would definitely say I'm technically savvy enough to accomplish the task, it's also something I've never poked before. Figured it couldn't hurt to pick the collective brain of the Internet for knowledge and recommendations. Maybe someone out there knows a trick I wouldn't find elsewhere, or a lovely piece of software I should look into.
ai REALLY excels at filling in small gaps in knowledge like this since it's literally modifying configuration files and runtimes.
True. I was hoping for an element of human experience, more general guidance and personal preferences than a step-by-step.
I'm sure the Arch Wiki probably has a page in it somewhere that covers the basics, and I definitely plan on looking for neutral resources like that. I'd also love to hear from the community, likes or dislikes, different software solutions. I always find it interesting and enlightening to learn how other people are doing things. 🙂
Either arch or gentoo would probably have the entire walkthrough. I learned how w gentoo back in 2005 so I'm sure it's changed a lot since then.
CachyOS with Niri
Go Debian with the tasksel of choice
create some dotfiles, ansible playbooks and go nuts with it.
my current setup is arch+niri. but I have used hyprland and sway/swayfx.
here are my dotfiles
https://codeberg.org/Disco-Robot/dotfiles
I ought to update them though, so some things might brake if you intend to adapt them.
but yeah I would recommended you to check unixporn and see any desktop environment or windown manager that fits your fancy (if you wanna deploy fleets in your company don't go full hackerman take into account usability).
Then grab the dotfiles if avaible RTFM and try to create your configs, sync with git and create a playbook that clones the repo, installs the packages and symlinks configs into .config.
if you are new I think you can't go wrong with KDE and Gnome and it's extension suite, else if you prefer WMs like hyprland, you have hyprland itself, niri which I love aswell and heard great things about magoWM although seems a bit hard to configure.
with that base the rest is lego in my setup I use fuzzel as the run menu but you also have rofi or ulauncher if it's still around, for the bar I use waybar, the powermenu I use a fork of wlogout ... you get it :).
Thanks for the links and advice! I'll take a look at those dotfiles for sure.
I use gtklock for lockscreen with a background picture.
I'm personally running river right now, which given the right window manager can be a delightful experience.
Interesting. Thanks!