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Digital Nestby Ulises Jeremias

Hornero Linux Desktop · operating system

Hornero OS

Development preview · not installable yet

A good Hyprland desktop on Arch still means assembling a shell, themes, a greeter, and system scripts by hand — and keeping them in sync afterwards.

An Arch-based Wayland desktop built around Hyprland and Quickshell. A versioned manifest joins its Argentine- branded shell, defaults, system CLI, and login screen from separate repositories. An integrated assistant is a future direction; it does not ship today.

Visit Hornero OS (opens in new tab)Try the componentsInspect the composition ↗ on GitHub (opens in new tab)
The hornero-dark wallpaper: a rufous hornero perched on its mud nest above a Patagonian lake at dusk, with the Hornero OS wordmark.
Brand wallpaper, not a screenshot · HorneroOS/config · assets/brand/wallpaper/hornero-dark.png · MIT

Hornero Linux Desktop · system lineage

From a personal desktop to a shared system

The everyday configuration became a place to try ideas. Reusable desktop components moved into HorneroOS-owned repositories, where the preview manifest composes them into a generic desktop system.

  1. 01 Personal source

    HorneroConfig

    A chezmoi configuration in daily use. Personal preferences and experiments stay here, with changes reviewed before they are applied.

    Explore HorneroConfig

  2. 02 Extraction and ownership

    Reusable desktop components

    The shell and desktop defaults were extracted from HorneroConfig. HorneroOS repositories own their ongoing product development; the CLI and greeter live alongside them.

  3. 03 Manifest composition

    Hornero OS

    The manifest pins the shell and desktop defaults to specific commits, then builds horneroctl from source. A virtual-machine smoke test checks the composition.

    Development preview · no installer or ISO

    This pageInspect the composition repository
HorneroConfig remains a personal desktop source. Hornero OS is a composition preview, not an installable release.

How it is composed

A preview is a manifest, not an image

Every preview manifest in HorneroOS/hornero pins exact shell and config commits, then buildshorneroctl from source. A VM smoke test verifies the composition and its theme.

Installer and ISO slots remain empty: this preview can be inspected, not installed.

All previews ↗ (opens in new tab)

manifests/v0.2.0-preview14.yaml released

Status, component by component

What you can use today

These components can be used on an existing Arch + Hyprland desktop. The installer and ISO do not exist yet.

  • Try on Arch today

    horneroctl (opens in new tab)

    System CLI written in V: appearance, wallpaper, colors, capture, hardware, and package verbs. Non-interactive by default, with --json, --dry-run, and --yes.

    yay -S horneroctl-bin

  • Try on Arch today

    Shell (opens in new tab)

    Bar, launcher, dashboard, control center, notifications, and lock screen, built with Quickshell, QML, and Qt 6 plus a native C++ plugin. Hyprland first.

    cmake -S . -B build && cmake --build build

  • Try on Arch today

    Desktop defaults (opens in new tab)

    Hyprland, kitty, GTK, Qt, and font defaults with 15 theme packs, including the flagship hornero-dark, hornero-light, and pampa themes.

    scripts/materialize.sh --dry-run

  • Try on Arch today

    Greeter (opens in new tab)

    SDDM login screen that plays offline footage of Argentine landscapes. A Qt 6 port of aerial-sddm-theme; footage is CC BY / CC BY-SA.

    sddm-greeter --test-mode --theme <path>

  • Not built yet

    Installer and ISO (opens in new tab)

    Reserved slots in the manifest. The installer approach (archinstall, Calamares, or custom) is still undecided, and no image has been built.

  • Direction only

    AI-native integration (opens in new tab)

    The long-term direction: an assistant integrated with the desktop, as a separate daemon. The shell has a companion bird today, but no assistant exists behind it.

Same family, different jobs

Hornero OS and HorneroConfig

Hornero OS grew from HorneroConfig: shared components moved into reusable repositories, while its personal configuration stayed.

AspectHorneroConfigHornero OS
What it isMy personal desktop configuration, managed with chezmoiA generic desktop OS composed from separate repositories
StatusEstablished — in daily use for years, reworked for Hyprland in 2026Development preview — not installable yet
Who it is forMe first; anyone who wants to adopt or fork the setupArch users who want a finished Hyprland desktop, once it ships
RelationshipConsumes the Hornero shell and horneroctl, keeps personal overridesIts shell and defaults were extracted from HorneroConfig

Contribute

Where help is useful now

  • Hardware reports. Run the shell and defaults on your machine and report what breaks — there is no compatibility record yet, and every laptop helps start one.
  • Shell and QML work. Open issues cover the plugin contract, performance baselines, and lock-screen behavior.
  • Docs. The documentation is nine pages and growing; install and architecture guides need writers.

Contributing guide ↗ (opens in new tab)Discussions ↗ (opens in new tab)All 9 public repositories ↗ (opens in new tab)Community