StratOS Arch distro with Hyprland impresses ZDNET reviewer

ZDNET reviewer Jack Wallen wrote that StratOS, an Arch-based Linux distribution that offers GNOME, Hyprland and Niri editions, made a strong impression when he tested it, with the Hyprland option standing out. Wallen said Hyprland is a tiling, keyboard-driven compositor and not well suited to new users, and listed several important shortcuts, including Open terminal: Super + Return, Open application launcher (Rofi): Super + Space, Close focused window: Super + Q, Switch workspaces: Mod + Left/Right Arrow, Reload Hyprland config: Mod + Shift + R, and Lock screen: Super + L.

He praised StratOS's default Hyprland look as modern and stylish and noted the desktop includes a basic system resource monitor, a clock, a calendar, an uptime timer and indicators for volume, network and workspaces. Preinstalled software mentioned includes Ghostty, Conky, Emacs, Kvantum Manager, Neovim, Thunar and the Zen Browser, and the desktop menu provides quick access to commands such as file search, suspend/power options, emoji search, extension store, open config file and set theme.

Wallen also noted StratOS does not include a GUI app store by default—common among Arch-based distros—but users can add one by installing Pamac with: yay install pamac, after which apps can be installed via a GUI.

Key Topics

Tech, Stratos, Hyprland, Arch Linux, Gnome, Pamac