Omarchy 3.8 "The Defaults Edition" - Reminders, Weather, And ASCII Art

Omarchy 3.8 — DHH is calling it the Defaults Edition. Set your default browser, terminal, and editor from the menu instead of digging through config files. Simple change, massive quality of life improvement. But there's a lot more in here than defaults.

You can download Omarchy here https://omarchy.org

REMINDERS

Super+Control+R pops up a box. Type a time and a message. That's it. A notification appears when the time hits. I set two during the video and both fired perfectly. If you're anything like me and lose track of time while editing or coding, this is going to get used constantly.

WEATHER

There's a cloud icon in the bar now. Click it and you get your location, temperature, and wind. Click again for a detailed ASCII weather forecast pulled from WTTR. Small touch, genuinely useful.

DEFAULTS

The star icon in Setup lets you choose your default browser, terminal, and editor. The browser list has expanded too — Chrome, Edge, Brave, Firefox, and Zen are all installable from the menu now. Foot terminal is available as a lightweight alternative to Kitty. Set your defaults once and the system respects them everywhere.

NON-ENCRYPTED INSTALL OPTION

Omarchy has always encrypted drives by default, which is the right call for laptops and desktops. But if you're setting up a headless server that needs to reboot unattended, encryption adds an extra unlock step. During a fresh install, when you reach the drive wipe screen, Ctrl+C then N skips encryption. Only use this for servers behind a firewall.

CUSTOM ASCII SCREENSAVER

This is the fun one. You know the iconic Omarchy ASCII screensaver? You can now replace the logo with your own image. Go to Style, Screensaver, Set From Image, pick a transparent PNG, and it converts it to ASCII art. Your logo, your brand, Batman, whatever you want — bouncing around your screen in ASCII.

The prerequisite is a PNG with transparency. No colours — it's pure ASCII. You can edit the generated art afterwards if it needs tweaking. Combined with the custom boot screen and lock screen from 3.7, you can brand every part of the Omarchy experience.

CUSTOM ABOUT SCREEN

Same process — Style, About, Set From Image. Your logo appears in the system about panel. Another small branding touch.

IMAGE AND VIDEO TRANSCODING

The transcode tool from 3.7 now works from the file manager. Right-click any video or image, hit Transcode, and convert between formats and resolutions. MP4 to GIF, PNG to JPEG, resize to 4K, 1080p, or 720p. It's the same quick action that macOS has with right-click Convert Image — resize a 4K screenshot down to a YouTube thumbnail size in two clicks.

Super+Control+Period also launches it via fuzzy finder if you prefer the keyboard route.

OTHER BITS

Vox type dictation offered during initial install. Light and dark fully matched SDDM login themes. Better idle lock handling. Hardware acceleration improvements. Various metadata and consistency fixes across the system.

I make videos about Linux, Omarchy, gaming, creative tools, and self-hosting. Subscribe if that's your thing.