---
title: "A computer I can make my own"
description: "Omarchy and AI are making the computer customizations I used to put aside practical to build."
canonical: "https://www.rickblalock.dev/scratch-notes/a-computer-i-can-make-my-own/"
date: "2026-09-19"
updated: "2026-09-19"
author: "Rick Blalock"
---

# A computer I can make my own

> Omarchy and AI are making the computer customizations I used to put aside practical to build.

Published: 2026-09-19

Catalog: SN-013

I’ve always wanted little changes to the computers I use. Most of the time, I’ve conformed to how the OS wanted me to do things instead.

I have plenty of Apple experience from my Appcelerator days. But on the Mac, the signing shenanigans alone often made a small customization feel like more trouble than it was worth. I’d think about making something, then go back to working around it.

[Omarchy](https://omarchy.org/) has changed that for me. With [Quattro’s plugin system](https://github.com/omacom/omarchy/blob/quattro/manual/32-shell-plugins.md), I can change pieces of the desktop without maintaining my own version of the OS. AI makes it easier to turn those ideas into something I can try, adjust, and use.

I’ve published [Island](https://github.com/rblalock/omarchy-dynamic-island), a morphing widget for desktop controls and activity; [Panel Notes](https://github.com/rblalock/omarchy-panel-notes), for keeping notes alongside the app I’m using; and a [grid wallpaper picker](https://github.com/rblalock/omarchy-grid-wallpaper-picker) just because I wanted to try a different approach to quickly switching wallpapers. They’re small things, but being able to make them changes my relationship with the computer. I don’t have to stop at the options someone else anticipated.

I've got some bigger ideas I've always wanted that I'm working on this weekend just for fun: RewindAI for Omarchy (I miss that app a lot), a Screenflow-like video editor, an intelligent background service that tries to recommend and predict what you should do next and with one keyboard shortcut go and do that (Jev-like intelligence), and a music notation editor for my daughter.

I previously wrote about [a computer that learns how you work](https://www.rickblalock.dev/scratch-notes/the-computer-should-learn-you/). Making these plugins has given me another way to explore that idea. An open, changeable OS gives me room to work. AI reduces the effort of making something fit...honestly it's effortless.  Suddenly a "I wish it just did X but I don't have the time" turns in to a side quest agent and prompt that ends up just working with almost no time investment at all.

I can see this becoming useful well beyond people who enjoy tinkering with desktops. A small business could afford a computer shaped around its work, with interfaces and tools that change as its needs change. It could keep its data, workflows, and the knowledge accumulated along the way, even as it replaces the software or models helping with them.  That's a bigger picture thing of course but my point is it lets me approach a computer with a different viewpoint.

Making changes I used to put aside makes it easier to use my imagination.

---

[All Scratch Notes](https://www.rickblalock.dev/scratch-notes/)