Does anyone remember ArcoLinux, a distro now discontinued?

I do. It was quite famous, much more than EndeavourOS is today, because it offered a bunch of different ISOs, each with a different desktop environment or window manager, and I don’t remember what else. I don’t even remember if it had 12 or 22 different ISOs!

As described in 2020, there were “ArcoLinuxD (a minimal distribution with scripts that enable power users to install any desktop and application) and ArcoLinuxB (a set of community editions with many popular desktops and window managers).” That last set was crazy!

But even crazier was Erik Dubois, the father of ArcoLinux. He didn’t create ArcoLinux (mainly ArcoLinuxD) to say, “Look, this is how I believe Arch Linux should have been.” Nope. He wanted to educate people. So he took Arch and made something based on it that’s easier to install, but not too easy, or else you wouldn’t have learned enough!

I always find this guy arrogant. His websites (arcolinux.com and www.arcolinux.info—one with and one without www) were a mess because of his attempts at educating the universe, and his YouTube channel was a diarrhea of a couple of thousand videos!

When ArcoLinux was discontinued, I thought the world became a slightly more coherent place. Alas, I was wrong!

Enter Kiro

No, not Amazon’s Kiro, although, as we’ll learn, both use Claude Code to a certain extent. I noticed this on DistroWatch: Kiro. One of the 72 active Arch Linux derivatives! As described on DistroWatch:

Kiro is a desktop Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. It pairs a curated Arch Linux base with the nemesis_repo (a repository of pre-built packages), the Calamares system installer, and ArchLinux Tweak Tool for post-install configuration. At the live system’s login screen, Kiro offers a choice between the Xfce desktop environment and ohmychadwm window manager (Kiro’s own tiling window manager, a fork of dwm). Once installed, it provides support for a number of popular desktop environments and window managers, all installable from ArchLinux Tweak Tool. Kiro follows Arch’s rolling-release model and targets 64-bit (x86_64) systems.

I’d be damned. Real men don’t only use a tiling window manager; they fork one and make their own shit!

OK, let’s draw up an inventory:

  • arcolinux.com: “ArcoLinux has stopped. Teaching never stops—because learning is a lifelong journey for all of us.”
  • www.arcolinux.info: “Farewell to ArcoLinux – Thank You for the Journey/Support. WE LEAVE YOU WITH ONE LAST PERSONAL ISO: KIRO.”
  • sourceforge.net/projects/kiro/files/: The place where you can find the latest ISOs.
  • github.com/kirodubes/kiro-iso: “KIRO is a community Arch-based Linux distribution. This repository is its ISO builder — it uses the official ArchISO toolchain to produce reproducible builds with pre-configured packages, desktop environments, system optimizations, and custom configurations baked in, ready to install and use out of the box.”
  • kiroproject.be: “Kiro — an Arch-based Linux distro, without the setup. A curated Arch experience built by Erik Dubois with Claude AI — for the community. Includes the nemesis_repo, Calamares installer, 13 desktops, and the ArchLinux Tweak Tool.”
  • github.com/erikdubois/ohmychadwm: “ohmychadwm: A fully configured, keyboard-driven X11 desktop built on top of Chadwm, a fork from dwm (Dynamic Window Manager). We started with the code from ArcoLinux – arcolinux-chadwm package and we let us inspire by Omarchy. Inspired by omarchy (Wayland/Hyprland) — ported to X11.” Just admire the 43 themes.

When I started this, the latest ISO was kiro-v26.06.01-x86_64.iso. Now, it’s kiro-v26.06.02-x86_64.iso. Each ISO has 6.7 GB! The website says 6.2 GB, meaning by this 6.2 GiB (the “old-school GB” in powers of 2: 1 GiB = 2^30 bytes, whereas 1 GB = 10^9 bytes). Either way, it’s fucking huge for an Arch-based, tiling-oriented distro!

Erik’s forte is still his YouTube channel

This guy’s mental status can be assessed, as always, by his YouTube channel, which has roughly 5.7K videos!

Yes, you read it right: about 5,700 videos. Some members-only videos are related to “working with Claude.”

Let’s make another quick inventory, because this channel is a huge mess:

So it took him almost a year to launch kiroproject.be and get listed on DistroWatch!

Using Claude Code

On both his GitHub accounts, @erikdubois and @kirodubes, one can notice that Claude is listed as contributor to several projects. This is also documented in Erik’s videos.

In the context of his new tiling window manager, I singled out a few videos.

● KIRO 016 : Using Claude Code to Build a Custom Linux Boot Animation on Kiro.

● Edu 081 : Ohmychadwm – a tiling window manager tweaked for the use on Kiro ISO – current status.

● Edu 080 : How to install ohmychadwm-git on any Arch Linux based system.

A comment I agree with:

Would you consider creating a new beginner learning-path playlist that is distro-agnostic and no longer tied to ArcoLinux?

You have a lot of excellent videos, but many are Arco-related, which makes things confusing now that ArcoLinux is no longer the path forward. For people interested in Arch-based distros, what playlist would you currently recommend? If there is not one yet, could you make one?

At the very least, it would help to archive the ArcoLinux-specific videos. Right now there is so much mixed together that, for beginners especially, it becomes noise instead of guidance. The content is valuable, but the current organization is overwhelming.

● Edu 079 : Ohmychadwm – Easter Egg – a tiling window manager easy to rice – 2026/04/06 – launch day.

This is where you can see a prompt for Claude:

I would like to make a youtube video
give me an overview of what we did last week concerning ohmychadwm
then give me a structure of ohmychadwm

This is among the things I hate the most about the way people use chatbots nowadays! “Mirror, mirror on the wall, which are all the wonderful things we did together? I need a plan for my upcoming video!”

Contradictions and renewed energy

I found this narcissist’s use of Claude at odds with some current trends. (“Narcissist” is a simplification, as there are several ways to support its endeavors, so the simple YouTube monetization isn’t the only one.)

Here’s some recent news:

While I find such anti-AI blanket policies utterly stupid, it’s amusing that he reconsidered its retirement from distro-making, possibly only thanks to the help that LLMs such as Claude could bring him!

Here’s what he wrote back in April 2025, when he wrote A farewell to the ArcoLinux University:

Why It’s Time to Step Back

Aging is humbling. As I near 60, I’ve come to realize I simply don’t have the same mental sharpness or stamina I used to. I catch myself making little mistakes — the kind that matter when you’re maintaining an ecosystem with this many moving parts.

Rather than let that diminish the quality of ArcoLinux, I choose to leave it while it’s still stable, respected, and valuable.

What Comes Next?

I don’t have big plans. I want to slow down, enjoy life, and maybe tinker with Linux just for fun again — without the pressure of running a large project.

The code, the videos, the documentation — they’ll remain online for others to learn from, fork, or remix. I truly hope others will take inspiration from it. Just as I was inspired by the community years ago.

I’m positive that Claude made Erik Dubois start anew. So he won’t stop until his YouTube channel reaches 10,000 videos!

To think that most people blame Gen Z and Gen Alpha for being monomaniacal…

Also, tiling window managers are no longer the prerogative of young, brainwashed individuals.

The Apocalypse is really nigh.