How I Set Up My Ultimate Dev Environment: Arch Linux + Neovim + Hyprland

Why I Chose Arch Linux

Hyprland: The Tiling Compositor That Changed Everything

Neovim + LazyVim: My Editor Setup

Terminal & Shell Setup

Tools I Use Daily

Final Thoughts Hi, I'm Sliman — a Computer Science master's student specializing in Networking & Security, based in Algeria. I spend most of my time writing Python, C, JavaScript, and Bash, working on projects ranging from cryptography tools to machine learning models and CTF challenges. Today I want to share the dev environment I've built and fine-tuned over time — one that makes me genuinely fast and comfortable as a developer. Most people start with Ubuntu. I did too. But at some point you want full control — over your kernel, your packages, what runs at startup, all of it. Arch Linux gives you exactly that. It's a rolling release distro, meaning you always have the latest packages.

The AUR (Arch User Repository) has virtually everything you'll ever need. And the Arch Wiki is hands-down the best Linux documentation on the internet. Yes, the installation takes time. But you learn exactly how Linux works in the process — disk partitioning, bootloaders, networking, all of it. I use Hyprland as my Wayland compositor. No traditional desktop environment, no taskbar clutter. Just a keyboard-driven, animated, buttery-smooth tiling experience running natively on Wayland. Hyprland is what happens when you take the productivity of a tiling window manager and add smooth animations, per-window opacity, blur effects, and gestures — without sacrificing speed. Here's what my typical workspace layout looks like: Once you go tiling, you never go back. Your hands almost never leave the keyboard, and switching between a terminal, browser, and editor becomes instant. I use Neovim with the LazyVim distribution as my main editor. Key plugins I rely on daily: The learning curve is real, but after a few weeks of muscle memory, editing code feels like playing an instrument — fluid and expressive. For daily tasks I live inside the terminal: This setup isn't for everyone. It takes time to configure and there's a learning curve. But if you're someone who values speed, minimalism, and full control over your environment — this stack is worth every hour invested. I'm planning to write more about: Follow along if that sounds interesting to you. 🚀 What's your current dev setup? Drop it in the comments — I'm always curious how other developers work. Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Hide child comments as well For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse