The Arch Wiki is the resource to go to. It’s usually one of the first places I look for info, and one of the first I recommend – for users of any distro. Has been for a long time.

The number of times I have said this… The urge to hop will return. I recommend investing in a cheap secondary piece of hardware, like an older used Lenovo Thinkpad.

I’m not trying to mimic how Omarchy looks. I am looking to replicate a very specific end result not “turn another distro into Omarchy.”

There is one specific part of what Omarchy does that I am asking about: how to achieve the custom branding of certain aspects of the OS. Nothing else. I don’t care if the path to the end result is the “Omarchy way” or not, I’m trying to see what avenues exist to achieve that same end result. Linux has many ways to do the same thing.

I don’t need an LLM for that. I don’t want to use an LLM to try and achieve it. And I don’t have to. That’s the beauty of choice. I won’t be replying to you past this point, as there’s no merit here. Thanks for your engagement, have a nice night, day, or whatever time it is wherever you are!

Hello, TrollAccount69. 🙂

I could let AI think for me, or I could learn how to manage in on my own.

If you seriously want to employ AI effectively, I find knowing how to do what you’re asking it to do is the best way to get good results. Otherwise… Who knows what’s going to come out the other end!

I like to handle my system myself. Managing my install is fun for me. I’m just looking for general advice, not for someone to do it all for me.

Interesting. Thanks!

Cachy has been on my radar for a while, too. Definitely worth checking out, thanks!

Thanks for the links and advice! I’ll take a look at those dotfiles for sure.

Hmm, another solid call-out. ISO 100 gang, where you at?

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. 🙂

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.

A solid recommendation. I’ll bookmark it for a rainy day.

“I really only use the PC for gaming. Mostly, I play Valorant.”

There ya go, you’re not getting that working under Linux even if you are a master tinker. 🤷‍♂️ He did eventually switch, but not until long after he stopped playing Valorant regularly.

Some reasons are silly, some are incredibly valid. Sometimes it’s just “I don’t want to” and that’s OK too, lol.

As much as people whine about it as a trend, “/s” goes a long way. 😂

There’s no winning… I get you, though. And you’re right, they do think they know best… Which is why I won’t use GNOME. I left Windows for the same reason. And I’ll catch a lot of hate for it, but IMO GNOME is far too opinionated about how the end-user “should” interact with their PC for my tastes.

Honest answer: I’ve never had need of cutting edge repositories in Linux Mint, so I’ve never looked or tried. I would doubt that adding cutting edge repositories to Mint would be a good idea for system stability – there’s a reason “bleeding edge” distributions have a reputation for being a tinkerer’s playground. Look at the stability reputation of, say, ArchLinux as an example.

I love Arch, and have used it extensively over the last decade or so, but I would not recommend it or nearly any other rolling release to a newcomer to the space; if you aren’t comfortable getting your hands dirty in the terminal, it’s only a matter of time before you end up with an unstable system that may or may not boot without the confidence to fix it.

My one exception to the rule above, if you aren’t afraid of configuring some repositories for non-free software: OpenSUSE Tumbleweed was a wicked stable rolling release last time I tried it due to the way the organization behind it runs it. It tends to be a little heavier than what you’re asking for, but as far as graphical options for system configuration you can’t really beat OpenSUSE, IMO. YaST (their system configuration platform) has a tool to configure… Well, damn near everything, honestly. Even if the UI/UX feels a bit “dated”, everything you need is there.

Depending on how mission-critical your PC setup is, I might recommend doing a little “distro-hopping.” Back up your data, wipe your drive, install a distro and trial it for about a week or so. If one feels like it “fits,” just stay there.

I would not say Fedora is hard to install and maintain. The biggest issue by far is a setup hurdle for getting “non-free packages” enabled – Fedora (and a few other distros) is a “FOSS-only” distribution, meaning they don’t include anything by default that is not “free, open-source software.” That means media codecs for playing popular audio and video file formats, web browsers like Chrome (I would recommend migrating away from this platform if you’re using it) and anything else that’s “proprietary software.”

There are ways to enable access to this software, but it requires configuring your software package repositories to point to them. It’s not hard, just something to keep in mind.

Linux Mint is a great choice for newcomers to the space – it includes access to non-free software OOTB, has sane default applications on all of its “flavors” with their separate desktop environments, provides decent utilities for configuring your system graphically without blocking you from learning how to do so by config file or terminal should you want to learn. It stays decently up-to-date with packages, you won’t be on the bleeding edge but that’s not a bad thing. If you aren’t doing intense activities (gaming, video editing, etc) having the absolute latest packages won’t really matter to you. It still gets security updates, so you’re good there. It’s a well documented distro with a friendly community and forum if you run into trouble with anything. All around a really solid choice, and would be my first recommendation for someone not looking to do any heavy gaming or other specialized work on their PC.

XFCE is my desktop environment of choice. Not only is it lightweight, it also comes with some of the better desktop environment defaults, in my opinion. Linux Mint will theme it nicely upon install, but it’s a long-standing DE that has a huge backlog of support for customization and “beautifying” your install however you like. Lots of themes and cursor options for those who care, all without pushing your resources. It’s a traditional desktop paradigm, so it won’t try and force you to interact with your PC in new and unusual ways (looking at you, GNOME, you weirdo). It just… Gets out of your way and lets you use your PC the way you’re used to.

Linux Mint + XFCE is my recommendation, for sure.

I have the sneaking suspicion this was supposed to be sarcastic, but the Internet doesn’t carry “tone”… Am I correct? 😂

I have never had an issue with subtitles on Jellyfin, and my wife has turned our household into an always-on subtitles household. Are you making use of the Open Subtitles plugin?

Just gonna… Drop this here…

I adore OBS. I’ve been teaching my friends the basics on how to use it, as they’ve all been using some proprietary crap that makes their lives marginally easier in one or two areas but adds a huge headache in others.