Launcher to be included with Ubuntu Mate?

Development Discussion
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Hi guys, I seem to remember hearing @Wimpy say on a podcast somewhere that he’s currently evaluating app launchers to be included out of the box with Ubuntu Mate. Any updates on the decision? Is there a list of the possible candidates?

This interests me because I can’t use a desktop without an app launcher. As a matter of fact, I don’t just launch apps, but I also do quick math calculations and I also depend on my launcher to find and open documents / pictures by name. I also expect it to learn from my usage patterns and make my apps and/or docs be suggested first in the list based on the frequency of usage.

Thanks for the information!

1 Like
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Personally, I’ve been checking out Albert – still in development – and so far I like it better than others I’ve tried, like Synapse and Kupfer.

MATErunner? (AKA is now the time for a new power user desktop tool?)
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Thanks! Interesting to hear that it’s working for you. Is it “intelligent” in the sense that it learns from your usage habits and starts suggesting your most used apps and files first as you type just a few letters?

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I installed using Webupd8’s PPA. I haven’t tried to compile a newer version.

I mostly use it for simple math and launching the same few applications, so I don’t know how smart it is.

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Another possible option:

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i tried albert, really liked its speed and looks, but i found it to be buggy - my settings weren’t remembered between reboots :frowning:

tried mutate too, not so impressed.

currently using synapse 0.2.99.1 - so far so good

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Here are all the options I can find:

Albert

  • https://github.com/ManuelSchneid3r/albert
  • written in C++
  • Intelligently places most used results on top
  • Searches in application description field
  • Fuzzy search works good to find parts of multiple-word file names
  • Good calculator functionality
  • TAB key reveals more actions on an item such as “Open parent folder”, very useful
  • Doesn’t add newly created files to its database until after a restart Can be set to update the index every X minutes
  • Development is very active, responsive developer

GnomeDo

  • http://do.cooperteam.net/
  • One of the originals
  • Written in Mono, so lots of dependencies.
  • Not well maintained, last release Jan 22, 2014

Kupfer

  • http://engla.github.io/kupfer/
  • UI inspired by GnomeDo, but written in python
  • Default configuration isn’t very usable
    • automatically clears input after a brief pause
    • doesn’t show multiple query matches
    • workarounds exist, but require manual code hacks
  • One very active developer answers bug/support requests, but otherwise not well maintained, last release date 1 June 2012

Synapse

  • http://synapse.zeitgeist-project.com/
  • Written in Vala
  • a couple of themes available out of the box that behave differently, the “Virgilio” theme works pretty well for me
  • Intelligently places most used results on top, but doesn’t update its intelligence until after a restart
  • Doesn’t search description field of applications, so for example you can’t search for “pdf” to make Evince appear
  • Not very actively developed, last release 2015-01-28, last one before that was 2011-04-07.

Mutate

  • https://github.com/qdore/Mutate/
  • written in C++
  • Ridiculously large amount of -dev package deps results in hundreds of MB installation
  • Intelligently places most used results on top
  • Doesn’t merge application and file results in the same view
  • I can’t find a way to make it open the parent folder of a file
  • Doesn’t seem to find folder names

Gnome Shell

  • Only usable inside Gnome Shell, which I don’t like
  • Built in search is fairly fast
  • Does not intelligently place most used results on top
  • randomly can not find certain files
  • No “open parent folder” option

Krunner

  • Requires a large amount of KDE deps, and I don’t run KDE
  • Doesn’t have an “open parent folder” option for files

Unity

  • Basically requires running Ubuntu with the Unity desktop
  • Very slow search, even on a very fast system
  • Frequently doesn’t return results without searching, backspacing, and re-typing
  • Useful thumbnails of results
  • Very buggy calculator functionality doesn’t usually work without specifically clicking on the calculator source, defeating the purpose of using it for a quick calculation

So I’m not too thrilled with any of these options. I’m currently using Synapse. Albert is looking really good now with its 0.7.x release.

Are there any other options I’m not yet aware of? And what are you using?

2 Likes
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Updated Albert description:

Albert

  • https://github.com/ManuelSchneid3r/albert
  • written in C++
  • Intelligently places most used results on top
  • Searches in application description field
  • Fuzzy search works good to find parts of multiple-word file names
  • Good calculator functionality
  • TAB key reveals more actions on an item such as “Open parent folder”, very useful
  • Doesn’t add newly created files to its database until after a restart Can be set to update the index every X minutes
  • Development is very active, responsive developer
2 Likes
Synapse crashes in 15.10?
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The Albert readme has been updated to list the required Ubuntu dependencies. Now it’s very easy to try the latest version.

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man, there’s a shedload of dependencies (77!) for albert, and 368 MB disk space…

…took a good while to compile on my little old laptop…

…but seems pretty cool!

after only a few minutes, i’m liking it too - but it doesn’t open folders :frowning:

maybe in a later release?

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It does index folders. Did you enable indexing of folders in the Files plugin configuration?

1 Like
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ah thanks - i didn’t have folders ticked in ‘indexed types’

do you have any idea what the ‘template’ plugin does?

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It just says “Template plugin for plugin developers.”, so I assume it’s just a starter template for devs to build on to create their own plugins.

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I decided to give Albert a test and ended up making a PPA for it :smile:

Just disable the Files plugin, that is causing Albert to regularly segfault at the moment.

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Cool, thanks a lot @Wimpy! Did you file a bug report about the Files plugin segfaulting? On Manjaro (Arch) it works perfectly for me with over 20,000 files indexed.

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Kupfer is the best when it comes to integration with gnome desktop. However it is not maintained well any more. So I think synapse could be installed as default.

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Synapse is installed by default in 16.04 LTS:

System -> Preferences -> Look & Feel -> MATE Tweak

Under “Interface -> Panel Features” check “Enable Launcher”

1 Like
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Now that I think of it Kupfer is far better. A recent updated version has been pushed to the ppa. Can we make this default? The problem with synapse is it’s doesn’t work IBUS is disabled (keyboard input method).

It would also be great if Ubuntu mate team willing to work on it. Few things still needs to updated. Thanks.

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What a coincidence seeing this topic floating around when I saw some launcher news, like someone forking synapse and adding some new stuff like:

  • password store plugin (see an example of this in action here)
  • Zim plugin
  • Tomboy Notes plugin
  • Gnote plugin
  • Improvements to file change detection in Zeal plugin
  • fixes for Ubuntu 16.10

And another launcher called Zazu App

http://zazuapp.org/

2 Likes
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@Cold All the plugins you talked about are available in kupfer. Recently python3 port has happened and it is more active than ever. Here are the list of few other plugins I use in kupfer:

  • SSH host (search ssh host and connect to it)
  • Top (send any signal like kill or abort to any running process)
  • Remmina
  • Thunderbird (search mail etc)
  • Contacts (search and open calendar events in Gnome Contacts)