How I went from Debian/Gnome to Arch/Hyrpland
Going for Arch and Hyprland
It was time to do a fresh Linux install, not because of any specific reasons, but beause it was time to try something new.
Why
My previous setup ran Debian 12 with Gnome and it had served me well for around five months.
I had made Gnome window managerish by using custom shortcuts with run or raise scripts. First by using jumpapp and then by writing my own with ChatGPT.
My two main issues were outdated packages and a desire to switch from a full desktop environment to a window manager.
There was also a nagging voice in the back of my head telling me that I should install Arch and give up my old Windows installation.
This, of course, presented an opportunity to try Wayland again, if I was going through all the trouble anyways.
I knew that it would cause some issues with my Nvidia card, but decided to let future me worry about that.
Setup
Before going full Arch, I decided to checkout AwesomeWM on the Debian. While going through X11 options I realized that I wanted dynaming tiling, as it works really well with my style.
I really enjoyed how AwesomeWM worked, being able to tag certain programs and use run or raise to switch between tags felt really good. Bonus points for lua configuration, which I've grown familiar with using neovim.
Compared to my earlier setup on Gnome, while I could jump from app to app using the scripts and shortcuts the setup wasn't easily moved compared to sharing config files between systems. I also don't use pretty much any of the UI features and would much prefer to only have a full screen for every application. Which works really nicely with the dynaminc tiling. Having a separate "desktop" for each tag and being able to add and delete tags on a whim, while always tiling things nicely was just not achieavable before.
Having an awesome window manager just wasn't enough. Having verified my opinion that I wouldn't miss anything from a full desktop environment I set my sights on Arch.
Installing Arch
Having heard, that installing Arch isn't as bad as people think, I can confirm this. That being said, I still had issues that made me appreciate good backups.
ArchWiki is awesome and made the installation easy and understandable.
Challenges with installing Arch
Turns out that Windows creates EFI partition that doesn't have too much space on it. Mine only had 100MB. This caused my Arch installation to seemingly corrupt the EFI partition (well, it ran out of space) and so I lost my Debian because I had to recreate and resize the EFI partition.
I'm surprised that this hand't cropped up earlier, because I've been dual booting for a few years and had couple different distros during that time.
This wasn't all negative because now I had no choice but to finish my Arch install.
After resolving the partitioning and continuing with the installation I didn't immediatly realize that I had to manually create configuration files for my ethernet connection and systemd-boot to actually get my internet working and system to boot correctly. These were easily solved by reading the wiki; otherwise the installation was pretty smooth.
Wayland & Nvidia
The first window manager that I installed on my new shiny Arch was Sway.
I immediately had problems with my Nvidia GPU. Before going with nouveau drivers I decided to search if I had any other options. Turns out that Hyprland does have unofficial Nvidia support.
Out with Sway, in with Hyprland.
To my surprise, it just worked; I could still keep playing Shadow of the Erdtree without any issues. There is some flickering on my second screen, but I'm not sure if that is Nvidia/Hyprland issue or my monitor.
While Hyprland doesn't work like AwesomeWM, it still shares most of the pros of a window manager vs a desktop. I actually went with a simpler config, where I handle workspaces and applications myself by using shortcuts.
Result
Ultimately, I achieved everything I could have hoped for: a Wayland-based system with a good window manager with dynamic tiling, a rolling release distribution, and the ability to keep playing games with my Nvidia GPU.
If you've ever been interested in window managers or fully keyboard driven workflow, I highly suggest trying one. For someone like me, it's a complete game changer.
And if you want a computer that only does what you need without any bloat, I highly recommend Arch. It took some work to get to a complete state, but now I have a bare-bones setup that is designed just for me.