Omarchy 4.5 adds floating workspaces, Apple Silicon Mac support, and ARM ISO

Omarchy 4.5, an Arch Linux-based distribution built around the Hyprland Wayland compositor, expands its desktop paradigm with switchable tiling, scrolling, and floating workspace layouts toggled per-workspace via Super + L. The release marks the project's first native Apple Silicon support through Omarchy M, enabling M1-M3 and Neo MacBook owners to install alongside macOS without USB media, while M4-M6 support remains in development.

The distribution also ships its inaugural ARM64 ISO with preliminary support for NVIDIA DGX Spark desktops and N1X-based laptops, though this remains experimental with Snapdragon compatibility planned later. Installation times are claimed to be roughly halved by switching from individual package installation to a prebuilt root filesystem extraction model. Desktop responsiveness improvements include direct Hyprland shortcut launching for menus, reduced background polling, faster terminal startup, and a shortened one-second Limine bootloader delay.

Desktop architecture and platform support changes

• Workspace layout engine: Users can now switch individual workspaces between tiling, scrolling, and floating modes via Super + L without affecting other workspaces, with floating mode adding themed title bars, a dock for pinned and running applications, and Super + M window minimization.
• Apple Silicon port (Omarchy M): Native installation support for M1, M2, M3, and Neo MacBooks allows dual-boot installation alongside macOS without USB drive requirements; M4, M5, and M6 support is under active development.
• ARM64 ISO and hardware targets: The first ARM64 release targets NVIDIA DGX Spark desktops and N1X-based laptops experimentally, with Snapdragon compatibility planned for a future update.
• Installation architecture: The installer replaces per-package installation of approximately 940 packages with extraction of a prebuilt root filesystem image followed by machine-specific package installation, reducing installation time by approximately half.
• AI agent infrastructure: The agents panel expands from six to 23 providers including Claude, Codex, Grok, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, OpenCode, and Ollama, with usage monitoring, multi-account management, and a Super + ~ drop-down terminal for default agent access.

Why it matters

Omarchy 4.5 represents a notable expansion of desktop Linux onto Apple Silicon hardware without requiring Asahi Linux's manual installation process, potentially lowering barriers for developers transitioning from macOS. The ARM64 ISO and planned Snapdragon support signal growing distribution investment in non-x86_64 consumer and workstation platforms, while the prebuilt root filesystem approach to installation may influence other Arch-based distributions seeking faster deployment.