Omarchy vs Omakub: Which DHH Setup Should You Use? (2026)

✅ Compared: Omarchy v4.0.0 "Quattro" vs Omakub v1.5.0 — Last updated: August 2026

Omarchy and Omakub are both DHH's "omakase" Linux setups — a single command that turns a fresh install into a fully-configured developer workstation, no dotfile assembly required. They share a creator, a philosophy, and a lot of tool choices. They do not share a base distro, a desktop paradigm, or a development pace. This guide compares them on facts you can check yourself — GitHub activity, release dates, and what each project actually ships — not marketing copy.

The Short Answer

Omakub is not dead. DHH has said publicly that it's "essentially done" and only needs "gentle polishing," and that framing checks out: the last Omakub release was v1.5.0 on November 9, 2025, and the last code pushed to the repository was April 3, 2026 — over four months stale as of this writing. Omarchy, meanwhile, shipped its biggest release yet, v4.0.0 "Quattro," on August 14, 2026, rewrote its entire desktop shell, and formed a dedicated Core Team five days later. If you want the project that's actively shipping new capability right now, that's Omarchy. If you want something that already does what you need and isn't going to change under you, that's exactly what Omakub is for.

What They Actually Are

Both projects follow the same idea: instead of spending days configuring a window manager, terminal, editor, and shell tools by hand, you run one script and get DHH's curated toolchain installed and working. Where they diverge is the foundation:

• Omakub is built on Ubuntu 24.04 with the standard GNOME desktop. It transforms a normal Ubuntu install into a themed, tool-equipped dev environment without changing how you interact with the desktop.
• Omarchy is built on Arch Linux with the Hyprland tiling compositor. It replaces the entire desktop paradigm — floating windows and a taskbar give way to keyboard-driven tiling, and Arch's rolling-release model replaces Ubuntu's point releases.

DHH described the difference himself on X: "Omakub is virtually done. It'll continue to be maintained. But Omakub is built on Ubuntu, so the scope is much smaller. Arch and Hyprland are much more low level. Lots more room to tailor." That's the whole comparison in one sentence: Ubuntu bounds what Omakub can be, Arch does not bound Omarchy the same way.

Development Activity — By the Numbers

These numbers are pulled directly from the GitHub API, not press material:

The open-issues gap is worth reading correctly: Omarchy's 1,106 open issues against Omakub's 52 is not a sign Omarchy is buggier — it reflects an order of magnitude more active users filing feature requests and edge cases against a project that changes every week. Omakub's low issue count matches a project in genuine maintenance mode, not one silently rotting. There is a community discussion about "Omabuntu," a community-driven continuation of Omakub inspired by Omarchy's pace — a sign some users want more velocity than the official project currently ships, not evidence Omakub is abandoned.

What Omarchy Has That Omakub Doesn't

Since Quattro, the gap has widened in Omarchy's favor on raw capability:

• Built-in AI coding agents. Omarchy 4 wires up nine CLI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI, and more) as lazy-loading commands, launchable with Super+Shift+Ctrl+A. Omakub has no equivalent — you'd install and configure any coding agent yourself.
• A unified, rewritten shell. Quattro replaced eight separate background processes (Waybar, Walker, Mako, SwayOSD, hyprlock, hypridle, swaybg, polkit-gnome) with a single Quickshell-based shell. Omakub inherits GNOME's shell as-is — themed, but architecturally unchanged.
• Rolling access to new packages. Arch's rolling model means new tool versions land in days. Ubuntu 24.04's LTS model means you wait for the next point release or backport PPA.
• A dedicated governance team. The Omarchy Core Team, formed August 19, 2026, exists specifically because growth outpaced what DHH alone could review. Omakub has no equivalent structure — it doesn't need one at its current pace.

What Omakub Has That Omarchy Doesn't

• A conventional desktop. GNOME behaves like every other Linux desktop you've used — floating windows, a dock, a top bar you already understand. Nothing to relearn.
• Ubuntu's stability guarantees. LTS means security patches without breaking changes for years, official hardware vendor support, and predictable behavior — properties Arch's rolling model deliberately does not offer.
• A finished feeling. DHH's own description — "Omakub is essentially done... I've basically changed nothing with my setup since the big push last summer" — is accurate. If you install it today, you are not signing up for weekly change.
• No tiling-WM learning curve. You lose zero productivity in week one. Omarchy's keyboard-driven Hyprland workflow takes real adjustment time before it pays off.

Who Should Use Omakub

• You want Ubuntu's LTS stability and official hardware/vendor support, not a rolling release
• You're happy with a conventional GNOME desktop and don't want to learn tiling window management
• You want a setup that stays out of your way once installed — no weekly updates to review
• You're deploying on hardware or in an environment where Ubuntu is the standardized, approved distro

Who Should Use Omarchy

• You want the actively developed project — new features, faster package access, a growing plugin ecosystem
• You're willing to spend a week adjusting to keyboard-driven tiling in exchange for long-term speed
• You want AI coding agents wired in natively instead of configuring them yourself
• You want full AUR access and Arch's rolling-release package freshness

If you decide Omarchy is the fit, the installation guide covers both the ISO method and manual installation on existing Arch, including Quattro's new dual-boot option. For the full breakdown of what Omarchy includes and how it performs, see the Omarchy review.

Troubleshooting Common Questions

Is Omakub actually discontinued?

No. It's in maintenance mode, not discontinued — DHH has said explicitly it will continue to be maintained. The last release was November 2025 and the last code push was April 2026, which is slow compared to Omarchy's weekly pace, but Ubuntu-based tooling simply needs less frequent changes than an Arch-based rolling system. There is no announcement of Omakub being sunset or archived.

Can I switch from Omakub to Omarchy later?

Not as an in-place upgrade — they run on different base distributions (Ubuntu vs Arch), so moving means a fresh install. Back up your dotfiles and project data, then follow the Omarchy installation guide on a clean drive or a shrunk-down dual-boot partition.

Which one is better for gaming?

Omarchy, by a real margin. Since v3.7 it ships a streamlined Steam installer, pre-configured RetroArch, and tuned controller/Lutris/Heroic integration. Omakub is not built with gaming as a target use case — GNOME on Ubuntu works for gaming generally, but Omakub doesn't add the same curated layer on top.

Does Omarchy's AI agent integration only work with Claude Code?

No — Quattro wires up nine different CLI coding agents (Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Crush, Grok CLI, Pi, and Oh My Pi) as lazy-loading commands, and you can set any of them as your default with omarchy default agent <name>.