Linux Antiquity: an art-nouveau Hyprland theme you install with install.sh
A highly tasteful Linux-theme, reminiscent of art-nouveau and old drawings related to astronomy, science, and mythology.
At a glance
- What is it?
- Linux Antiquity is a QML and Quickshell theme for Hyprland built around art-nouveau and old astronomy drawings. It is a proof of concept by its own admission, and the README says to install it at your own risk.
- Who is it for?
- Adopt Linux Antiquity if you run Hyprland above 0.55 on one machine, you are comfortable editing hyprland.lua and hyprpaper.conf by hand, and you accept a v0.1 art project that the README says will be refactored and may break. Do not adopt it on a machine you cannot reinstall or repair, and do not expect a supported desktop environment.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes. MIT is a permissive licence: you can use, modify and sell software built on it, as long as you keep its copyright and licence notices.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository last received commits 62 days ago.
- What is it written in?
- Mainly QML, according to GitHub's language statistics.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on September 17, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
DEEP OPEN-SOURCE ANALYSIS
What Linux Antiquity actually is, and who it is for
Linux Antiquity is a desktop theme, not a distribution and not a standalone application. The repository contains configs/, an iconTheme/ directory, install.sh, screenshots/ and a README. The primary language is QML, and the theme renders through Quickshell, which is the layer that draws the panels, widgets and settings menu on top of Hyprland.
The audience is narrow and specific. You need to already be running Hyprland, because the theme ships Hyprland configuration rather than a session of its own. You need to want the look: the README describes it as reminiscent of art-nouveau and old drawings related to astronomy, science and mythology, and the screenshots show a theme picker plus weather widgets. If you are happy with a stock desktop and want something that installs and forgets itself, this is not that.
The README is unusually direct about status. A caution block states that the theme is "first and foremost an art project", that version 0.1 was about getting a proof of concept ready for a video, and that a large portion of the code will be refactored after 0.1. That framing matters more than any feature list. You are adopting a work in progress whose author says designs may change and be improved.
How the pieces fit: Hyprland, Quickshell and QML
The architecture is layered. Hyprland is the compositor and owns window management, keybinds and monitor layout. Its configuration lives in ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.lua, and the README notes the theme uses Lua rather than the older Hyprland config format. Wallpapers are handled separately by Hyprpaper through ~/.config/hypr/hyprpaper.conf.
Quickshell sits on top and renders the visual identity. Its entry point is ~/.config/quickshell/shell.qml. That file begins with pragma lines that set the icon theme for the Quickshell UI specifically, which is why icon changes are not a single global setting. The README gives the example of buuf-nestort, an icon theme included in the repository, and instructs you to place icon theme folders in ~/.local/share/icons so they can be found.
Around that core, the theme depends on ordinary desktop tools: Kitty as the default terminal, Nemo as the default file explorer, Mako for notifications, Hyprshot for the screenshot keybind, jq and socat. The README also lists nwg-look, dconf and dconf-editor as recommended rather than required, for setting GTK themes, cursors and environment variables. The data flow for the weather widgets runs outward: the theme calls the OpenWeatherMap API using credentials you enter yourself in the theme's settings menu, reached from the left sidebar buttons. Nothing in the repository ships with those credentials.
Installing Linux Antiquity and getting to a first working session
The README gives one install path: run the script at the repository root. It moves the relevant directories into ~/.config, notifies you about missing dependencies, and creates backups when it finds existing directories in the way. The README also says that if you prefer, you can move the config directories from the repository into place manually.
./install.shBefore that, confirm the dependency floor. Hyprland must be above 0.55 and Quickshell above 0.3.0 according to the README, and the rest of the required list is Hyprpaper, Kitty, Nemo, Mako, Hyprshot, jq and socat. If any of these are missing the script is documented to tell you, but installing them first avoids a half-finished setup.
After installation, two files need manual editing because the README says monitor details and wallpaper directories have to be set by hand for now. Open ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.lua for monitors and ~/.config/hypr/hyprpaper.conf for wallpapers. The README states these files are commented in detail, so the intent is that you read the comments rather than guess.
The last piece is the icon theme, which is set inside the Quickshell entry point rather than through a desktop settings panel. The README shows the two pragma lines that control it, and both need to agree on the same theme name.
/* NOTE: CHANGE THESE IF YOU WANT TO USE A DIFFERENT ICON THEME: */
//@ pragma IconTheme buuf-nestort
//@ pragma Env QS_ICON_THEME=buuf-nestortOnce the session comes up, the default keybinds are worth learning because they are the only documented way to reach parts of the interface. The README defines mod as the super key, with mod + Enter for the terminal, mod + D for the application launcher, mod + E for the file explorer, mod + Q to kill a window, mod + F to toggle full screen, and mod + a number from 1 to 9 to switch workspaces. Weather widgets stay empty until you open the settings menu from the left sidebar and enter your OpenWeatherMap details.
The weather widget needs your own API key
The weather widgets are the most visible interactive feature, and they are entirely dependent on an external account. The README links to openweathermap.org, calls the free tier generous enough for the theme's needs, and describes the data as detailed enough for the widgets. There is no bundled key, no proxy and no offline fallback mentioned.
Enabling it is a settings-menu task, not a config-file task. You open the theme's settings from the left sidebar buttons, and the README says you will see where to enter the OpenWeatherMap details. That is a different workflow from monitors and wallpapers, which are edited in files. The split is a fair reflection of how unfinished the configuration story is: some settings have a UI, others do not, and the README acknowledges the inconsistency by saying a settings tab for monitor data is under consideration.
If you never enter a key, expect the widgets to have nothing to display. That is not a bug in the theme so much as a design decision to push API credentials to the user rather than ship a shared key that would be rate-limited or revoked.
Where Linux Antiquity will bite you
The largest limitation is stated by the author, not inferred. The caution block says to install and use at your own risk, that a large portion of the code will be refactored after version 0.1, and that performance of the UI was not a concern during 0.1. The README adds that it runs well for the author, which is a personal observation rather than a general guarantee. If you need predictable frame times or a theme that will not change under you, this is the wrong tool right now.
The install script replaces directories in ~/.config. The README says it creates backups before doing so, but it does not document a rollback command or an uninstall path. Restoring your previous Hyprland setup therefore means finding those backups yourself. On a machine you rely on daily, that is a real risk.
Configuration is also split across three places with three different mechanisms. Monitors and wallpapers are edited in hyprland.lua and hyprpaper.conf. The icon theme is edited in shell.qml through pragma lines. Weather credentials are entered in the settings menu. There is no single source of truth, and the README explicitly flags manual editing as a temporary state rather than a design goal.
Finally, the theme is tied to Hyprland above 0.55 and Quickshell above 0.3.0. If you run another compositor, or an older Hyprland, none of this applies. The README does not describe a portable version.
Linux Antiquity against a conventional Hyprland rice
The realistic alternative is not another art-nouveau theme, it is building your own Hyprland configuration or starting from a general-purpose dotfiles repository. The difference is in who owns the decisions. A personal rice is assembled from waybar or similar panels, a launcher, a notification daemon and your own keybinds, and every file in it is one you chose. Linux Antiquity is the opposite: it arrives as an opinionated set with a theme picker, weather widgets, a settings menu and a fixed icon theme, and you adapt to it.
That trade is worth naming precisely. A hand-built rice takes longer to reach a first session but has no version floor beyond the compositor itself, no install script writing into ~/.config, and no external API dependency for its widgets. Linux Antiquity gets you to a coherent look quickly, and the coherence is the point: the icon theme, wallpapers, terminal themes and widget styling were designed together rather than assembled from unrelated projects.
The README also explains one deliberate omission. GTK theme and cursor theme are not included, on the grounds that those are highly personal and a wide range of styles would suit the theme. That is a reasonable boundary, and it means even a full install leaves part of the desktop to you.
Licence, maintenance and what an upgrade costs
The repository is MIT licensed. For practical purposes that is permissive: you can modify the QML, the configs and the install script and redistribute your changes, provided you keep the licence notice. It does not grant rights to the bundled icon theme beyond what that work's own terms allow, and the README does not spell out the provenance of buuf-nestort. If you plan to redistribute a modified build, check the icon theme separately. This is a description of the licence text, not legal advice.
The last push to the repository was on 2026-07-20, and the only release listed is v0.1 from 2026-06-28. The README asks users to subscribe or follow the repository for update notifications and recommends installing the latest version from the releases page often. That is the upgrade model: there is no package, no versioned channel and no migration tooling described.
Upgrading therefore means re-running install.sh against a newer checkout, which will again write into ~/.config and again create backups. Any manual edits you made to hyprland.lua, hyprpaper.conf or shell.qml are at risk of being overwritten, and the README does not document a merge strategy. The cheap habit is to keep your own edits in a separate file you can reapply, rather than editing the shipped files in place.
Editorial conclusion
Adopt Linux Antiquity if you run Hyprland above 0.55 on one machine, you are comfortable editing hyprland.lua and hyprpaper.conf by hand, and you accept a v0.1 art project that the README says will be refactored and may break. Do not adopt it on a machine you cannot reinstall or repair, and do not expect a supported desktop environment. Before you commit, verify three things: that your Hyprland version satisfies the 0.55 floor, that Quickshell is above 0.3.0, and that install.sh has created backups of the directories it is about to replace, because the README does not document a rollback path.
Frequently asked questions
What is Linux Antiquity?
It is a Linux desktop theme built around art-nouveau and old drawings of astronomy, science and mythology, rendered through Quickshell on top of Hyprland. The repository is mostly QML plus a set of config directories and an install script.
Which dependencies does Linux Antiquity require?
The README lists Hyprland above 0.55, Quickshell above 0.3.0, Hyprpaper, Kitty, Nemo, Mako, Hyprshot, jq and socat as required, with nwg-look, dconf and dconf-editor recommended. The install script is documented to notify you if anything is missing.
How do I install Linux Antiquity?
Run ./install.sh from the repository root. The README says it moves the relevant directories into ~/.config, backs up existing directories it finds, and reports missing dependencies; you can also move the config directories manually instead.
Why does the Linux Antiquity weather widget show no data?
The weather widgets read from OpenWeatherMap using credentials you supply yourself. You enable them by opening the theme's settings menu from the left sidebar buttons and entering your OpenWeatherMap details; without that, there is no data source.
Can I use a different icon theme with Linux Antiquity?
Yes, but it is set in the Quickshell entry point rather than a desktop settings panel. The README shows two pragma lines at the top of ~/.config/quickshell/shell.qml, IconTheme and Env QS_ICON_THEME, which must name the same theme, and the folder must live in ~/.local/share/icons.
Community notes