Ryoku 1.0 · Amaterasu · Released
Ryoku
力と美のためにfor the sake of power and beauty
- Compositor
- Hyprland ⇄ niri Wayfire · experimental
- Shell
- Quickshell on Go IPC
- Theming
- matugen, from your wallpaper
- Delivery
- signed packages
Switch any time from the Hub or ryoku wm use niri. No reinstall.
See it running.
A live Ryoku desktop in six different moods. Move through the strip, then bring any view up full size.
A whole desktop, not a pile of dotfiles.
The bar, launcher, lock screen, capture tool and settings app are one shell, fed by one Go daemon. Run it on Hyprland or niri and switch whenever you like, without reinstalling.
Show it off on Sunday. Forget it’s there on Monday.
I build Ryoku at night, after my two kids are asleep. I don’t have time to babysit a desktop, and you shouldn’t have to either. So Ryoku has two jobs: look finished the moment you log in, and keep working long after you stop paying attention.
Change anything. Reinstall nothing.
Try a new bar, a whole new look or a different window manager tonight. Your files, apps and settings stay put.
Same desktop, whatever’s underneath.
Arch, CachyOS, Void, Fedora or NixOS. Keep the base you trust and get the same Ryoku on top.
Nobody builds alone.
Ryoku began as one person’s late nights. It grows because people file bugs, bring their shells and tell a friend. There’s room for yours.
one shell, one daemon, every edition.
Everything, already installed.
A fresh box boots into a finished desktop: apps, tools, and toolchains already in place.
Common questions.
What is Ryoku?
Ryoku 1.0, Amaterasu, is one complete Wayland desktop and the system that keeps it working. Arch and CachyOS are stable; Void, Fedora, the community NixOS port and the Wayfire compositor are experimental.
Read the manual →Is Ryoku free and open source?
Yes. Ryoku is free and open source, developed in the open on GitHub, and its Arch, CachyOS, Void and Fedora packages ship through signed repositories.
Source on GitHub →Is Ryoku an Omarchy alternative?
Yes, and it is its own project, not a fork. You get the same opinionated, keyboard-driven, pre-riced Arch spirit, built from the ground up with its own compositor-independent Quickshell desktop, a control center, and a reproducible single-source system.
How they compare →How do I install Ryoku?
Boot a signed ISO for a fresh disk, or run the one-line install script to convert an existing Arch, CachyOS, glibc Void or mutable Fedora 44 / 45 system. The NixOS community port has its own site and installer.
Install guide →Can I switch compositors?
Yes, without reinstalling. Hyprland and niri are stable. Wayfire is experimental on Arch and CachyOS only. Pick one in Ryoku Settings under Window Manager, or run ryoku wm use with its name.
Ryoku Settings →What hardware does Ryoku need?
Every edition needs x86_64 hardware, at least 8 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. Ryoku is a full desktop: it idles at 1 to 4 GB of RAM depending on your settings, and it runs best on a dedicated GPU. Graphics need working KMS and hardware OpenGL or Vulkan; Void niri does not run on software rendering.
Hardware notes →How do I update or roll back Ryoku?
Run ryoku update for Ryoku packages, configuration and health checks. Arch, CachyOS and Void ISO installs add Btrfs snapshot recovery; Fedora keeps GRUB and rolls Ryoku packages back without system snapshots; NixOS uses generations.
Updates & rollback →Hey, I’m Carlos.
I made Ryoku. I’m 27, Guatemalan and American, married, and a dad of two. Most of this distro gets written after the kids are asleep.
I served in the US Army, first as an infantryman and later as an IT specialist, then went back to school for cybersecurity and networking. No, I didn’t invent a programming language worth half a trillion dollars. I am poking at one in my free time though, so we’ll see.
Why Ryoku
Ryoku is opinionated, and my opinion is freedom. You shouldn’t get a pile of apps shoved at you that you never asked for. If you see a setup you love on Reddit, you shouldn’t have to run some sketchy install script or burn 50 hours hunting down someone’s dotfiles to get it.
I want a distro where you can live in one shell for a week and switch to a completely different one the next, without reinstalling anything or figuring out which folder gets what.
I don’t want Ryoku to feel like a dotfiles repo. I want developers to build their shells inside it, instead of everyone starting from zero alone, struggling to find users and burning out. Use what Ryoku already has, team up with other people, and ship something together.
Keep Ryoku going.
Ryoku is free and it’s staying free. It runs on one person’s nights and weekends, plus everyone who shows up with bug reports and pull requests. If it saved you some hours, you can chip in.
Can’t donate? A star on GitHub, a good bug report, or telling a friend helps too.