Lately there's been (deserved) hype around DHH's linux flavor Omarchy1. The main benefit? Speed. The closer I can get to using a computer at the speed of thought the better. And I admit to feeling tempted to end my ~30 year romance with macOS and pick up a Framework2 and dive in. Or follow the Asahi Omarchy3 guides so I can keep my hardware looking nice. But learning a new OS and messing with compatibility issues is just not the stage of life I'm in.
Thankfully, I'm glad to report that with three awesome pieces of software and a few simple tweaks, I have macOS working and feeling very similarly to Omarchy, without having to boot Linux. Here's how:
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Open Dock Settings (System Settings -> Desktop & Dock) and turn on 'Automatically hide and show the Dock'
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Open Menu Bar Settings and set 'Automatically hide and show the menu bar to 'Always'.
This gives your desktop a much more focussed appearance by eliminating OS "chrome".
From now on, you can just ⌘ ⇥ to cycle through apps or ⌘ ␣ to search and open apps.
Rectangle
Move and resize windows in macOS using keyboard shortcuts or snap areas.
Rectangle is our tiling window manager. While holding ⌘ ⌥ and then tapping ← or → you can move the active window to the left or right. You can set up quadrants, but I only ever find myself wanting 2 windows open at once- one on the left, one on the right.
Homerow
Keyboard shortcuts for every button in macOS
Homerow enables you to never have to use your mouse again. By typing ⌘ ⇧ ␣, any interactive element on the window is now "clickable" by typing the corresponding 1-2 character combination.
Superwhisper
Write 3x faster without lifting a finger
Lastly, I find myself really enjoying Slacking, Emailing, Messaging, ChatGPTing using Superwhisper. It's a great way to "type" when precision is not required. I just type ⌥A to start dictating in any focussed field and then ⌥A again to stop and paste. So almost any time my writing will be interpreted by another person, I use Superwhisper to get the idea across with just my voice.
To Explore...
These tools have sped up how I use my computer. It has me wondering what else I don't know about that others use to get even closer to the speed of thought. I'd be very interested to try out an eye tracker or even a BCI to see if any of them are faster than Homerow.