German developer Stephan Raabe has rolled out ML4W OS 2.12.0, the latest release of his Arch-based Linux project built around the Hyprland dynamic tiling window manager. Described as an advanced, full-featured operating system and dotfiles configuration, ML4W OS targets users who want a modern, highly customized Wayland desktop with a workflow focused on speed, keyboard-driven navigation, and a polished set of defaults.
ML4W OS 2.12.0 is available only for 64-bit PCs and comes as a 2.4 GB live ISO, making it easy to test without touching your current setup. If you prefer to stay on your existing Linux distribution, there’s also a dotfiles installer that lets you bring ML4W’s configuration and experience to another system without committing to a full reinstall.
A major focus of this update is the move to Quickshell. In version 2.12.0, Quickshell takes over several core interface components, replacing the Welcome app, Settings, Sidebar, and Calendar with Quickshell-based widgets. The logout experience has also been updated, with a Quickshell widget replacing wlogout. For users who still want the previous configuration tool, the ML4W Hyprland Settings app remains available as an optional separate install and can also be installed from within the Welcome app.
This release also delivers practical system-level improvements. A new snapshot script for Timeshift and grub-btrfs expands support beyond Arch to include Fedora-based distributions and openSUSE Tumbleweed, which should be useful for anyone who values quick rollback and safer updates. Arch users also get a new pacman update script that enables popular quality-of-life tweaks such as colored output, parallel downloads, and the well-known ILoveCandy option.
On the usability side, ML4W OS 2.12.0 introduces new keybindings for quickly toggling the calendar widget and for switching the active window to floating and pinned modes. There’s also a new Quickshell Overview feature that can be opened with Ctrl+Tab, aiming to make multitasking and navigation more fluid in daily use.
If you want to try ML4W OS before installing, you can boot it from a USB stick or test it in a KVM/QEMU virtual machine. Installation on top of Arch Linux is still labeled beta and can be initiated by running sudo install-ml4w-os in a terminal. The project has also been tested across a wide range of distributions, including EndeavourOS, Manjaro, Garuda, Arco, CachyOS, openSUSE Tumbleweed, and Fedora Workstation 43.
For Linux users who like Arch-based flexibility but want a curated Hyprland desktop with fast-moving updates and an increasingly widget-driven interface via Quickshell, ML4W OS 2.12.0 is a notable step forward.
