this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
62 points (95.6% liked)

Linux

48669 readers
589 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Looking for a good app launcher for Linux. Currently looking for something for Arch and I see there's a lot of options liks rofi and wofi. What are your favourite app launchers and why?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I might be missing something here but I don’t know how other launchers could possibly make this a simpler process.

Shortcuts to launch an app directly in example. So my keyboard becomes my launcher.

I use bunch of different tools, including KRunner (on KDE) and previously Rofi. These type name and search tools for launching an app have the problem that you need to remember what name the tool was. For programs I use often this is not an issue, but not all applications have names good to remember and not all of them are used often. The associated description helps, but sometimes I don't know what words to type.

Therefore I "need" the app menu with categories and favorites, to navigate with the mouse through. And the most used applications are usually assigned to a shortcut and my panel on the top. In short I use mostly all of these techniques as an application launcher (in that order):

  1. favorites on panel and my keyboard shortcuts
  2. app menu with categories, navigating with mouse
  3. run tool to search for app name and description (also integrated into the app menu)
  4. additional helper scripts to search and launch programs in the terminal

Edit: Forgot to mention that some of the launchers I use are custom made scripts for the terminal.