ersatz odyssey
I watched The Odyssey (2026) in theaters over the summer, and I liked it. A few months later, I downloaded a copy of it thinking that it was a web download, when the movie had, in fact, not even come out on streaming yet. I didn't check the video file itself once it was done; I'm a fiend for data so I kind of just shoved it into my home server's hard drives.
A couple days ago, I decided to burn it onto a DVD. So I go through the whole process of doing that, and this time I actually decided to look at the output. Lo and behold, the burn was successful... But it was the wrong movie. The actors were all wrong, and the harpy scene wasn't that terrible. I had downloaded an older adaption of the story, disguised as the newer one for some reason. I created e-waste and threw it away (I know, I just violated one of my own rules.).
real odyssey
Anyways, I thought that was funny. That's not what I'm writing about, though. I'm writing about Odyssey Linux. It's a Void-based distribution that comes with a lot of performance patches from CachyOS. I still love Cachy, but there are a lot of things about Void and Odyssey in particular that I like a lot more than Arch Linux, which is the base distro that Cachy uses.
pkg manager
The main thing I like better is the hallmark of any distro: the package manager. Void uses one called xbps, but Odyssey comes with a set of commands that abstract those commands. They are simple:
oupdateoaddoremoveosearch
Most package managers require a slew of flags you have to pass to perform those basic tasks, but the Odyssey creator took it upon himself to bake it into the system. It's pretty sleek. I especially like being able to search for packages from the command line instead of having to open up the AUR in my browser.
two(!) desktop environments!
Odyssey Linux allows you to pick multiple DEs at installation. The main reason why I wanted to reinstall my OS again was to switch to Niri, a tiling manager. But Niri isn't optimal for gaming. With Odyssey, I can also have KDE, a more traditional, windows-like environment; thus, I use Niri for productivity tasks and KDE for gaming.
Despite that, I've found that gaming on Niri actually works fine for most games. I like being able to move windows around wherever I want without the desktop freaking out a little bit. Niri maintains control over the windows no matter what, not vice-versa. It makes me feel so much more in control over my programs, and a lot less overwhelmed since they're not all stacked on top of each other. Way easier to stay organized.
Now if only I could actually get into the head space to be productive most of the time. ;(
da keybaord
I touched on this in my nvim post, but Niri keeps me on the keyboard more often. Combine this with the Vimium browser extension and I can basically rely entirely on my keyboard to use my computer. Most apps do still require the mouse, but I do basic productivity tasks by spending 90% of my time on the keyboard. It feels pretty great when I can finally get focused.
conc
Those are the three things I like about The Odyssey. I can't really think of anything else other than that it's Linux. It's basically like any other distro I've used. It just has some neat additions/changes that make it better than most in my opinion.
I don't really know what else to say. Go drink water. Wash dishes. Get some sleep. Watch The Odyssey (2026?) when it comes out on streaming?
Update 10/25/2026
I switched back to CachyOS. I was dual-booting it anyways and having problems with gaming on Void. Hopefully this marks the end of my distro-hopping jounrey, because I realized that you can have Niri as an additional DE on Cachy, too.