We're going all-in on Omarchy at 37signals. Over the next three years, as the regular churn of hardware invites it, we're switching everyone on our Ops and Ruby programming teams to our own Arch-derived Linux distribution (and of course sharing all the improvements we make along the way with everyone else on Omarchy!).
It's funny how nobody bats an eye when the company mandate is to use Macs or Windows, but when the prescription is Linux, it's suddenly surprising. It really shouldn't be. Your ability to control your own destiny with Linux is far superior to what you'll get from a closed-source, commercial operating system. Of course it is! The code is literally all there!
True, you might face more challenges, and there won't be a vendor to call (unless you hop into the Enterprise Linux camp, which doesn't appeal to me either). But I've never given a damn about that. I started using Ruby to build Basecamp when we could barely fill a room in American with professional Ruby programmers. This is what we do here!
This also means giving up on MacBooks and choosing Framework laptops as the new standard-issue equipment. Along with desktop machines from Framework and Beelink both. PC hardware has gotten incredibly good over the last few years, as AMD in particular has managed to extract many of the same processor improvements from TSMC, as Apple did so well with the M series. At least in terms of performance.
Again, true, there is still a gap on the efficiency front. Nobody can currently beat Apple on the wattage-to-power ratio (but the gap is fast closing!). So battery life on Linux using Framework is currently a bit less. I get about 6 hours of mixed use from my Framework 13, so whenever I suspect that might be a problem, I bring a small 20K mAh Anker battery in the bag, and now I have double the capacity.
A small concession on a rare occasion, but nothing like the performance AND battery deficit we willingly endured for decades on the Mac before Apple switched to their own chips. Because we wanted to run OSX. It was worth sacrifice a few other concerns for. Just like Linux is today.
On the flip side, we'll get a massive boost in productivity from being able to run our Ruby on Rails test suites locally much faster. For our HEY application, even the fastest Mac, an M4 Max, is almost twice as slow as a Framework Desktop machine running Linux, which can do Docker natively.
It's an exciting new adventure for us. Omarchy is already by far-and-away my favorite computing environment. Right up there in joy and wonder with the old Amiga days or early OSX. It's been a blast learning that so many other early-adopters have found the same feeling. Very reminiscent of the excitement in the early Ruby days. Knowing you'd found something super special that wasn't yet widely distributed (but poised to be).
I spoke about all of this with Kimberly on a bonus episode of The REWORK Podcast. Give it a listen if you're curious about the why, the how, and the inevitable objections.
