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Mainstream OS: Arch and Hyprland, finally for everyone

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Mainstream OS: Arch and Hyprland, finally for everyone

We often tell our clients: the best Linux desktop right now is Arch + Hyprland. Fast, beautiful, endlessly adaptable. The problem is that installing and configuring it takes whole evenings of config files — which is exactly what we do on our own machines. Mainstream OS solves that: “Arch under the hood, Hyprland on the surface, and the polish of macOS on top”. Its promise fits in one sentence: nothing needs a terminal; nothing can’t be undone.

What it is

The Mainstream OS desktop (project image, GitHub MainstreamOS/dots-hyprland)
The Mainstream OS desktop (project image, GitHub MainstreamOS/dots-hyprland)

A complete distribution based on Arch Linux, shipped as an ISO with the Calamares graphical installer. The desktop is a Quickshell shell on Hyprland — bar, dock, app drawer, workspace overview, lock screen — derived from end-4’s illogical-impulse project, which we have used ourselves for months, and heavily extended: dock, file search, theme system, and above all a Settings app that replaces editing files.

Why it speaks to us

Display settings, no config file (project image)
Display settings, no config file (project image)
  • Everything is set graphically: displays, layouts, keybinds, touchpad gestures, default apps, updates. What takes us a Lua file and a shell restart is done here in a window.
  • Nothing is irreversible: Limine boot + Snapper, so a snapshot before every update and a rollback from the boot menu. A repair tool is included.
  • Material You: the theme (light/dark, colours) is generated from the wallpaper, saveable and shareable.
  • Signed repository: prebuilt packages from the project, firewalld enabled, controlled updates.
  • Gaming and creation: gaming mode with a gamescope Steam session (Big Picture), creator tools (DaVinci Resolve, OBS) ready.
  • AMD, Intel, NVIDIA supported, with an experimental legacy-NVIDIA edition and an Intel MacBook (T2) edition.

The details that matter

Update with Snapper snapshot and rollback (project image)
Update with Snapper snapshot and rollback (project image)
  • Graphical window-rule editor, desktop widgets, wallpaper transitions.
  • Customisable bar, dock, title bars and window styling.
  • Launcher, workspace overviews, session restore.
  • Optional AI sidebar features.
  • GPL-3.0 licence, code on GitHub (MainstreamOS/dots-hyprland), very active repository (7,800+ commits, last push 17 October 2026).

How to try it

Two ways. The ISO (x86_64, about 3.1 GB) from mainstreamos.org/download, written to a USB stick (Ventoy, balenaEtcher) then guided install. Or, on an existing Arch install (CachyOS, EndeavourOS…), the official script: bash <(curl -fsSL https://mainstreamos.org/install.sh) — the route we are testing on a secondary machine, since our workstations already run the original shell.

Our take

This is exactly the distribution we wished we could install for clients who want to leave Windows or macOS without giving up polish: a modern desktop, a safety net (snapshots) and no command line imposed. A young project — worth watching before putting it on a production machine — but the direction is right, and we are adding it to the list of systems we offer to install and support.

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