Been testing different shells over the past few weeks and finally settled on Noctalia. So ArchBang is switching.
What’s a shell?
For anyone that doesn’t know, a shell is a graphical layer that adds most of the functions generally outside of the window manager’s control. Sure, some WMs come with bars and other bits, but shells tend to have far more. Candy, as I like to call it.
What it replaces
Until now ArchBang has been a stack of separate tools: Waybar for the panel, Mako for notifications, Rofi for the launcher and swaybg for wallpaper. Noctalia replaces all of them. It also handles audio, media, system settings, power and more, all from one place instead of five configs to maintain.
MangoWM stays as the compositor, and Foot stays as the terminal. Only the layer on top changes.
Wallpaper-driven theming
This is the bit I like most. Change your wallpaper and the theme colours change to match, so everything stays consistent without you touching a config file.
Why I chose it
- One thing to configure. Bar, launcher, notifications and controls all live in one place, which makes ArchBang easier to look after and easier for you to tweak.
- Native Wayland. It’s not built on Qt and it’s in the Arch repos, so no AUR needed.
- Room to grow. The launcher is search-first, and the plugin system means extra features can be added after install rather than baked into the ISO.
- The cost. [Add your RAM idle figure and ISO size change here, whichever you measured, so the “candy” trade-off is honest.]
Try it out, I would like to hear what you think. Does the candy stay, or is it too much?
Other News Omunchybang is now Omarchy free 😉
Stay safe….