The hyprland experience

My hyprland experience as a long time GNOME user

TLDR - my dotfiles: Aurora

Background

I've been a Ubuntu + GNOME user since 2021, when I was in 11th grade. I got a laptop to prepare for JEE (since COVID and lockdown were going on, my parents thought studying online would be better). Fast forward about four months — I started playing Valorant. I was kinda addicted to it and didn’t really study much.

That’s when my journey with Linux began.

I had heard about Linux from a few places — like it's this high-end operating system only software engineers use, blah blah. I found out that Linux doesn’t support games like Valorant because those games install a security system into the kernel. So I decided to install Linux to force myself to study rather than spend all day playing Valorant.

Which Linux distro to use

I searched the best linux distro out there on Google and got some big names — Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, Fedora, and a few others. And being the smartest man alive, I decided to go with Ubuntu — because it was the first option I was served.

Ubuntu

Flashed a USB stick with Ubuntu and installed it fresh on my laptop (not dual boot — removed Windows 🤡). Ubuntu comes with GNOME by default.

What is GNOME?

Google says:

GNOME is a free and open-source desktop environment for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It provides a user-friendly graphical interface and a set of applications for interacting with the operating system, making it easier for users, especially those less familiar with command-line interfaces, to use Linux.

In simple words, it’s basically the UI/UX layer that sits on top of your operating system and makes it usable — like the Start menu, taskbar, file manager, system settings, and how your windows look and behave.

If Linux is the engine, GNOME (or Hyprland) is the steering wheel.

Pros of GNOME

• Pre-installed with Ubuntu — no setup needed.
• Clean and minimal UI — feels like Windows, but from Meesho.
• App ecosystem — comes with out-of-the-box apps like Calendar, Terminal, Software Store.
• Customizing GNOME is kinda easy — download a theme/icon pack from gnome-look.org and apply it with GNOME Tweaks.

Cons of GNOME

• Customization is easy, but very limited. Moving the dock was almost impossible for me at one point.
• Deprecated extensions — most good ones are outdated and not supported on newer GNOME versions.

I was kinda happy with this setup. It was smooth, fast, and looked great (sadly, I don’t have any screenshots of it). It had a top bar with a workspace menu on the left, clock and media controls in the center, internet speed and dashboard on the right — and a floating dock at the bottom, exactly like macOS.

Why i left ubuntu and gnome

A few days ago, I started working at a place as a React Native developer. I tried setting up the dev environment for the app and ran into some issues — mostly caused by the combination of the college proxy and Linux.

So I decided to dual boot with Windows.

And of course, me being the greatest developer of all time, I completely messed up the installation and ended up wiping Ubuntu entirely.

Now I was stuck on a freshly installed Windows-only machine — no configs, no tools, no GNOME setup. And to make it worse, I hadn’t backed up anything. Didn’t know how to use dotfiles either.

I did have some screenshots of my GNOME extensions... as my version of dotfiles. 😭😭😭

Extensions-manager-screenshot

Wildcard – NixOS

I came across NixOS in a Fireship video — where he showed how you can roll back your entire system to a previous state with just one command. You can even keep multiple setups and switch between them.

"Wow, that’s exactly what I want."

So I installed it. This time, I actually dual-booted it with Windows (learning from my previous mistakes).

...and I was back to Ubuntu in a day 😭

Turns out, I was having trouble installing even the most basic apps. Not gonna lie — no hate to NixOS, it’s just not my thing (at least not right now).

But i'll be back with NixOS very soon.

Last but not the Least — Arch

At last, I settled on Arch Linux. Used archinstall (yes, I’m gay).

Logged in for the first time…

...boom.
Nothing special — it was all the same, because I was still using GNOME as my window manager.

Then I stumbled upon some tutorials by TypeCraft and others.

“How to make this super crazy-looking Arch setup using Hyprland.”

Sounded cool. Looked even cooler.

What is Hyprland and How It's Different

GPT says:

Hyprland is a dynamic, tiling Wayland compositor designed for modern desktop environments. It focuses on providing a smooth, visually appealing, and highly customizable experience.

In simpler words: Hyprland is a window manager, just like GNOME or KDE — but it's a tiling one.

What’s the Difference?

In a traditional desktop (GNOME, KDE, Windows, macOS), when you open a window, it floats in the middle of the screen. When you open another window, it floats too — maybe above or behind the first one.

Like this:

Floating windows

Hyprland takes a different approach:
It tiles the windows side by side, arranging them like puzzle pieces — automatically.

This makes the experience super keyboard-friendly — you can switch between apps, resize them, or move them around without touching your mouse.

Why?

I have no idea.
It just looks cool to me.

Not my setup btw

First Impression of Hyprland

Ugly.

First of all, it took me approximately a million years to set it up properly. And when it finally opened, I was greeted with a big, black Kitty terminal taking up the entire screen — with fonts so small I felt like I needed a microscope.

No bar.
No wallpaper.
No app launcher.
Just me and the void.

And the worst part? I had no idea how to open anything.
No right-click menu, No icons. Just the terminal.

After some more digging (copying configs from Typecraft's dotfiles), I finally started getting things working — one little piece at a time:

• Got a bar (waybar)
• Set up a wallpaper (hyprpaper)
• Added a launcher (wofi)
• fixed the font sizes

Eventually…
It started to look like a real setup.

Not just a setup — my (copied one but ok) setup.

Rabbit Hole of Ricing

Google says:

The term ‘rice’ is used to describe a person’s Unix desktop, where ‘ricing’ refers to customizing the look and feel — like icons, panels, or the system interface.
When it comes to ricing a tiling window manager, though, the process becomes way more involved. Basic things like the panel bar and application launcher must be configured manually by the user.

After getting better at writing these config files, I felt the power in my hands — the power to create or destroy universes.

"I am inevitable."
*snaps*

Every time I opened my laptop to get some work done, I'd find something off in the setup:

• The border's too thick.
• The wallpaper doesn’t match the color scheme.
• This font doesn't feel right today.

And the first thing I’d do
Open the config files.

Spend the next hour tweaking something tiny.
Something so minor that literally nobody else on Earth would ever notice.

Just a little better. A little more.

And then I’d finally start the task I was originally supposed to do. Maybe.

i would recommend using someone else's complete config with some tweaks, but don't waste too much time on fixing the already fixed stuff

Finally, Inner Peace

Eventually, I stopped nit-picking.

I finally settled on a Catppuccin-based Hyprland config that felt just right.
It looked good. It worked flawlessly. And most importantly — it felt mine.

Here's What My Current Setup Uses:

Hyprland — obviously.
Hyprpanel — not Waybar; I found Hyprpanel better for my layout and use case.
Wofi — app launcher.
Hyprpaper — handles wallpapers.
Hyprlock — lock screen.
Hyprshot — for screenshots.

After all the distro hopping, broken installs, accidental nukes, and hours wasted ricing…
this setup feels like home.

And that’s what Linux is all about — turning your computer into something that’s completely, unapologetically you.

Would I Recommend Hyprland?

Absolutely — but with a catch.

If you're new to tiling window managers or Hyprland, my advice is:

Start with someone else’s complete config.
Tweak it a little. Make it your own.
But don’t waste hours fixing things that already work.

The goal is to enjoy the setup — not get stuck in an infinite loop of BS.

My dotfiles

Now the most interesting part - my dotfiles

You can check out the full config here - Aurora

Yes i like to name my stuff, and i named this setup aurora, idk why.