Omarchy, the Linux distribution created by David Heinemeier Hansson, the Danish-American programmer and founder of software company 37signals (also known for Basecamp), has formally launched a team dedicated to running the system on Apple’s own hardware. The initiative, called Omarchy M, was announced on September 11, 2026, and aims to build a streamlined installer for Macs powered by Apple Silicon, the company’s in-house M-series chips.
Omarchy itself is an opinionated configuration of Arch Linux paired with the Hyprland window manager, first released in June 2025. It was designed with developers in mind and has grown quickly since, reaching version 4.0.4 by mid-September 2026, according to Wikipedia and DistroWatch.com.
From hobbyist project to official team
The push to run Omarchy on Macs did not start with the official announcement. Developer Naeem Malik had spent roughly a year maintaining an unofficial ‘Omarchy Mac’ project, getting the system running on M1 and M2 machines and building a Discord community that has since grown to more than 800 members. Omarchy M formalises and expands that work, drawing on the Asahi Linux project, a long-running effort to reverse-engineer support for Apple Silicon hardware.
Marcelo Alcantara, who leads development of the installer, is building an app that downloads directly on macOS, fetches a signed Omarchy release, partitions the drive and boots into Omarchy alongside the existing operating system. No USB installer or terminal commands are required. Alcantara has also produced a build enabling external monitor support over USB-C.
“Omarchy on Apple Silicon is getting a proper installer,” said Marcelo Alcantara, the developer leading the Omarchy M installer project.
Other contributors are working on separate technical hurdles. Scott Jones, focused on the Linux side of the install process, recently got the display working on the M3 MacBook Air using Apple’s hardware display controller. Ryan Murray is developing a component internally referred to as ‘Neo’, which lays groundwork the rest of the team relies on.
Hansson, who created Omarchy and remains its public face, has acknowledged Apple’s hardware quality even as his project works around its software. “Apple makes great hardware. They always have (minus that one time with the butterfly keyboard),” he said. On X, he added that the team is “moving very, very fast towards a fully streamlined Omarchy installer for Apple M machines,” describing a future where users “just download our Omarchy M app, try it first, then pick how much space you dedicate, and we do the rest.”
Funding and expansion
The project’s growth is underpinned by the nonprofit Omacom Foundation, which had secured roughly $13 million in commitments by September 2026. That includes $3 million pledges, spread over three years, from both cloud infrastructure firm DigitalOcean and Alibaba Cloud, each designated as a Founding Corporate Patron.
A week after the Omarchy M announcement, on September 18, 2026, the project unveiled a parallel effort called Omarchy Dragon, targeting devices built around Qualcomm Snapdragon chips. Miguel Cruz, already part of the Omarchy M team, is contributing boot and hardware experience gained from the Apple Silicon work to the new Snapdragon effort, according to Omarchy News.
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