4 ms·

Show HN: Wox – an open source launcher for windows inspired by Alfred and Launchy

54 points by ishu3101 11y ago

daviross 11y ago
Very cool! I've been hoping something like this would get active development again, since Launchy basically died. Alfred's been pretty good Mac-side. Shame that Synapse & near as I last saw Gnome Do seem to have also died off Linux-side. It's a useful product space.
- ishu3101 11y ago
  Wox also supports plugins. Plugins can be written in python and C#.
- baldfat 11y ago
  Linux side: I still use krunner (KDE) and I also like dmenu for simple launcher in tiled window managers.
- Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago
  Check out dmenu for Linux. http://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/ http://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/ Pipe a list of things into it, it'll graphically prompt the user for a specific thing, and then it'll print that thing to stdout. I use it to switch to named workspaces and to launch programs.
  - iheartmemcache 11y ago
    The whole suckless organization is an absolutely fantastic entity. I'm not even sure who they are (over the course of nearly 20 years I've stumbled across most members of the major -nix subset-communities), but suckless's dedication to the UNIX "do one thing and do it right" ideal is so steadfast it blows my mind. Anyways, yeah, dmenu and dwm just got it right. (Though I must admit I flirt with wmii these days). Every -nix'er owes it to him/herself to put 'exec dwm' into their .xinitrc for a few months. This analogy won't do it justice - but - the way your mind expands shifting over is comparable to the development mentality shift one gets when moving from procedural C to LISP or Smalltalk.
- JHonaker 11y ago
  Is Alfred really that much better than the updated Spotlight? I used to use it (free version), but I find that Spotlight does everything I want/need that I'm aware of.
  - mcintyre1994 11y ago
    Alfred workflows are super cool and have integrations like Evernote, Github and Stackoverflow that I don't see Apple ever supporting in Spotlight. Spotlight is way better for file searching though and its integrations are really good, but Alfred workflows are definitely worth looking into.
spacey 11y ago
I will give it a try, looks like a good alternative to Launchy. The online readme contains some broken images.
- ishu3101 11y ago
  Could you please provide the link to the broken images so that it can be fixed? Thanks
mavromatis 11y ago
Nice idea but can't install most plugins. The installation by wpm or manual complete succesfully yet the plugin is not installed. Example: Switcheroo for Wox; Wox.Plugin.SimpleClock.
KirinDave 11y ago
I'm willing to try this, and it would have been really nice to have during the Win8/7 days but... What purpose does it serve in Windows 10? Every feature and voice recognition seems to be part of the basic Win10 search (although you need to tweak it a bit to get local content search mixed in with app launches; I usually turn that off on spotlight). Part of the reason I really like Win10 is that it has something that has parity with these older tools. Indeed, Win10 is rightfully referred to as a search-driven OS. Most help articles refer to searching from the top level box into other apps, that can trivially publish search targets.
blainesch 11y ago
Open source, but no github/bitbucket links on the project or the plugins? This makes any type of contributing very limiting.
- disposition2 11y ago
  Github link is front-center ("Star") on the initial page (https://github.com/qianlifeng/wox https://github.com/qianlifeng/wox)
warunsl 11y ago
I have been using this for a while. It is good. It is not a replacement to GNOME Do yet (I am not sure if plugins bridge the gap) but I have found that the application search is much faster compared to the Windows 7 Start Menu. If the dev is here I have a question/bug report: Every time I reboot my machine, there is a error dialog (with a huge stack trace) that I have to dismiss. I see from the stack trace that it complains about not finding certain applications. I have realized that these applications were on my system when I first installed Wox, but since uninstalled. Thanks for making this utility though. Makes my life on Windows 7 a bit easier.
- ishu3101 11y ago
  Please make sure you are using the latest build. You can download the latest build from https://ci.appveyor.com/project/qianlifeng/wox/history https://ci.appveyor.com/project/qianlifeng/wox/history (top green build -> artifacts -> release-binary.zip). If you still get the error could you please report the issue here: https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox/issues/ https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox/issues/
torgoguys 11y ago
Docs say the keyboard shortcuts for this is alt+space. Does this mean that if I install this, I can no longer access the standard alt+space windows menu to minimize, resize, etc? If so, can the shortcut for Wox be changed? I've used the standard windows menu since at least windows 3.0.
- ishu3101 11y ago
  Yes, you can change the keyboard shortcut to whatever you like.
herbst 11y ago
When i read launcher i thought i am going to see a a Windows Environment replacement. Damn Android terminology. Anyway, i would definitly try that when i would have Windows. It is one of the typical missing features that let me wonder how windows people can even talk about productivity. Kudos.
ivanyu 11y ago
I wanted such a thing so badly that started to write it myself. Thanks!

54 points by ishu3101 11y ago

Very cool! I've been hoping something like this would get active development again, since Launchy basically died. Alfred's been pretty good Mac-side. Shame that Synapse & near as I last saw Gnome Do seem to have also died off Linux-side. It's a useful product space.

ishu3101 11y ago
Wox also supports plugins. Plugins can be written in python and C#.
baldfat 11y ago
Linux side: I still use krunner (KDE) and I also like dmenu for simple launcher in tiled window managers.
Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago
Check out dmenu for Linux. http://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/ http://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/ Pipe a list of things into it, it'll graphically prompt the user for a specific thing, and then it'll print that thing to stdout. I use it to switch to named workspaces and to launch programs.
- iheartmemcache 11y ago
  The whole suckless organization is an absolutely fantastic entity. I'm not even sure who they are (over the course of nearly 20 years I've stumbled across most members of the major -nix subset-communities), but suckless's dedication to the UNIX "do one thing and do it right" ideal is so steadfast it blows my mind. Anyways, yeah, dmenu and dwm just got it right. (Though I must admit I flirt with wmii these days). Every -nix'er owes it to him/herself to put 'exec dwm' into their .xinitrc for a few months. This analogy won't do it justice - but - the way your mind expands shifting over is comparable to the development mentality shift one gets when moving from procedural C to LISP or Smalltalk.
JHonaker 11y ago
Is Alfred really that much better than the updated Spotlight? I used to use it (free version), but I find that Spotlight does everything I want/need that I'm aware of.
- mcintyre1994 11y ago
  Alfred workflows are super cool and have integrations like Evernote, Github and Stackoverflow that I don't see Apple ever supporting in Spotlight. Spotlight is way better for file searching though and its integrations are really good, but Alfred workflows are definitely worth looking into.

spacey 11y ago

I will give it a try, looks like a good alternative to Launchy. The online readme contains some broken images.

ishu3101 11y ago
Could you please provide the link to the broken images so that it can be fixed? Thanks

mavromatis 11y ago

Nice idea but can't install most plugins. The installation by wpm or manual complete succesfully yet the plugin is not installed. Example: Switcheroo for Wox; Wox.Plugin.SimpleClock.

KirinDave 11y ago

I'm willing to try this, and it would have been really nice to have during the Win8/7 days but... What purpose does it serve in Windows 10? Every feature and voice recognition seems to be part of the basic Win10 search (although you need to tweak it a bit to get local content search mixed in with app launches; I usually turn that off on spotlight). Part of the reason I really like Win10 is that it has something that has parity with these older tools. Indeed, Win10 is rightfully referred to as a search-driven OS. Most help articles refer to searching from the top level box into other apps, that can trivially publish search targets.

blainesch 11y ago

Open source, but no github/bitbucket links on the project or the plugins? This makes any type of contributing very limiting.

disposition2 11y ago
Github link is front-center ("Star") on the initial page (https://github.com/qianlifeng/wox https://github.com/qianlifeng/wox)

warunsl 11y ago

I have been using this for a while. It is good. It is not a replacement to GNOME Do yet (I am not sure if plugins bridge the gap) but I have found that the application search is much faster compared to the Windows 7 Start Menu. If the dev is here I have a question/bug report: Every time I reboot my machine, there is a error dialog (with a huge stack trace) that I have to dismiss. I see from the stack trace that it complains about not finding certain applications. I have realized that these applications were on my system when I first installed Wox, but since uninstalled. Thanks for making this utility though. Makes my life on Windows 7 a bit easier.

ishu3101 11y ago
Please make sure you are using the latest build. You can download the latest build from https://ci.appveyor.com/project/qianlifeng/wox/history https://ci.appveyor.com/project/qianlifeng/wox/history (top green build -> artifacts -> release-binary.zip). If you still get the error could you please report the issue here: https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox/issues/ https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox/issues/

torgoguys 11y ago

Docs say the keyboard shortcuts for this is alt+space. Does this mean that if I install this, I can no longer access the standard alt+space windows menu to minimize, resize, etc? If so, can the shortcut for Wox be changed? I've used the standard windows menu since at least windows 3.0.

ishu3101 11y ago
Yes, you can change the keyboard shortcut to whatever you like.

herbst 11y ago

When i read launcher i thought i am going to see a a Windows Environment replacement. Damn Android terminology. Anyway, i would definitly try that when i would have Windows. It is one of the typical missing features that let me wonder how windows people can even talk about productivity. Kudos.

ivanyu 11y ago

I wanted such a thing so badly that started to write it myself. Thanks!