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

Sliman — Tue, 12 May 2026 12:19:44 +0000

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

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.

Why I Chose Arch Linux

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.

Hyprland: The Tiling Compositor That Changed Everything

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:

Workspace 1 — Terminal (Kitty or Alacritty)
Workspace 2 — Browser (Firefox)
Workspace 3 — Files / Notes
Workspace 4 — Background tasks / Docker

Key features I love:

Dynamic tiling — windows tile automatically, no manual layout switching
Waybar — fully customizable status bar with CSS styling
Hyprlock — beautiful screen locker
Hypridle — smart idle management
Native Wayland — better performance and security than X11

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.

Neovim + LazyVim: My Editor Setup

I use Neovim with the LazyVim distribution as my main editor.

Key plugins I rely on daily:

nvim-treesitter — beautiful syntax highlighting for every language
telescope.nvim — fuzzy finder for files, grep, and git history
nvim-lspconfig — LSP support for Python, JavaScript, C, Lua
none-ls — formatting and linting
harpoon — quick navigation between frequently used files
lazygit integration — full Git workflow without leaving Neovim

The learning curve is real, but after a few weeks of muscle memory,
editing code feels like playing an instrument — fluid and expressive.

Terminal & Shell Setup

Kitty — GPU-accelerated terminal, Wayland-native
Zsh + Oh My Zsh — better shell experience with plugins
tmux — terminal multiplexer for managing multiple sessions
starship — minimal and fast shell prompt

For daily tasks I live inside the terminal:

# Quick project navigation
alias proj="cd ~/projects"

# Git shortcuts
alias gs="git status"
alias gp="git push"
alias gl="git log --oneline --graph"

Tools I Use Daily

Tool	Purpose
`fzf`	Fuzzy search files and history
`ripgrep`	Fast code search (better than grep)
`bat`	`cat` with syntax highlighting
`exa`	Modern `ls` replacement
`htop`	Process monitoring
Docker	Containers for all my dev environments

Final Thoughts

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:

My Python and Node.js project workflows
CTF challenge write-ups (cryptography & networking)
Machine learning projects built from scratch

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.

DEV Community: Sliman

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

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