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Cerebro App – Open-source productivity booster with a brain
- jayniz 10y agoOther than being open source and multi platform - how does Cerebro compare to Alfred? *https://www.alfredapp.com/ https://www.alfredapp.com/
- runeks 10y agoWhat's it like compared to Spotlight on OSX?
- yarou 10y agoIt's Spotlight++, even better with an NP-hard template system.
- fredsir 10y agoMacOS, and Linux, and Windows? Let me guess: it's some web-electron-app-native-things, right? Yes it is. Not gonna replace (native) Alfred for me, no.
- aetherspawn 10y agoEqually, it's free. Alfred wants me to pay for it again to upgrade to the newest version, but I'm feeling like I kind of don't want to sink more money into it ..
- fredsir 10y agoI've been using Alfred for probably 7 years or so, every single day, and I can't imagine not using it. Even if it had cost double what it does, I still think it's worth it.
- juandazapata 10y agoI got the lifetime supporter pack for about 40 bucks and I've been using it for the last 6 years or so with free upgrades. Not a bad investment for something that you literally use almost every single day.
- pymai 10y agotbh, ive been hoping that a paid launcher for windows would come along at some stage because all the current ones only half fit my needs and are probably going to stay that way for a while since they only developed in someones free time
- risyasin 10y agoAlfred as a launcher it's free and way more efficient than spotlight. But just as the comment above, paid version is really nice and worth that price. Even deserve more. There is a website packal.org for workflows. It's amazing. Really miss fuzzy search on Gnome-shell or windows search.
- emsy 10y agoI once was a fan of electron until I ran some apps on a low end surface with little disk space. Something like react native for the desktop could become a huge success.
- ryanplant-au 10y agoThere is work being done on Universal Windows Platform support for React Native, which will let you publish not just on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile but on the Xbox One.
- iLemming 10y agoBtw. do you guys know that MSFT building next version of Skype with React Native? Mindblowing, innit?
- petrbela 10y agoThere's https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-macos https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-macos for OSX and, as mentioned, also Microsoft's https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native-windows https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native-windows for Win10/UWP
- motoboi 10y agoI was super sold, ready to install. But then realized that too. Electron apps drain my mac battery super fast. It's a pity.
- jayeshsalvi 10y agoThat must be the fault of the app than the Electron framework itself.
- nxc18 10y agoYou might think, but it seems all electron apps are resource hogs. What does seem to be in the app's control is whether it is fast. See VS Code and Atom; huge difference in performance but both will chew up your battery.
- MildlySerious 10y agoI think it's caused by Electron being so "easy". Anyone without much experience in CS can write desktop applications with it. Those who do have the CS experience tend to use different frameworks. So even if Electron is a solid foundation, there is probably a bias towards inexperienced developers in who it attracts to work with it.
- tedmiston 10y agoAgreed that this is essentially the "Atom of Alfred" with the web container. Seems interesting but Alfred is also an extremely polished product so many years in the making. As an existing Alfred user, it doesn't look good enough to make me switch.
- harrygeez 10y agoSo basically... an imitation of Spotlight? I prefer that they copy Alfred's UI. Simple and does all I need. Need Alfred on my Windows machine!
- snowcrshd 10y agoCheck Hain [1] on Windows. It works very nicely. [1] https://github.com/appetizermonster/hain https://github.com/appetizermonster/hain
- braunshizzle 10y agoI've been using Hain for the past 6 months, it s great but again built with Electron and can be a memory hog. Also the developer has seemingly become quiet in the past few months. I'd pay for a Alfred type windows version.
- harrygeez 10y agoThanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately, it's also an Electron app, which is something I would like to avoid. If footprint is also a concern to you check out http://keypirinha.com http://keypirinha.com! It's really great, with the only concern being not very elegant aesthetically...
- galfarragem 10y agoJust installed Keypirinha. It's great! Thanks for the hint. Edit: https://github.com/Keypirinha/Keypirinha https://github.com/Keypirinha/Keypirinha
- niklasber 10y ago"Search everything in few clicks" - poorly phrased or actually promotes navigating by clicking instead of using keyboard?
- pymai 10y agosome keyboards make clicky sounds ;)
- JetSpiegel 10y agoFor the ones that don't, there's https://github.com/zevv/bucklespring https://github.com/zevv/bucklespring
- faragon 10y ago"Cerebro" in Spanish means "brain".
- partycoder 10y agoAlso in Portuguese. The author seems non-hispanic, it could be a reference to X-Men: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebro
- SFJulie 10y agoNot even close, it is the «brain» as invented by Pr Xavier in X-men. Spanish must have stolen it in an alternate universe when the X-men went back in time fighting the spanish inquisition disguised as lumberjacks and it's ok.
- WildUtah 10y agoHm. I don't expect it that it was the Spanish Inquisition. Cerebrō was Latin for brain before it was Spanish, so probably it's some kind of Future Past thing with the Colosseum. Which explains why it's so beat up, but not how Magneto lifted it when the Romans didn't have steel-reinforced concrete.
- flocial 10y agoI wish siri would let me type queries. Having "information at your fingertips" really kills productivity for me. I need long stretches away from twitch reactions to "what's the capital of Uganda?" type of intrusive thoughts. I'd honestly pay for a "2 click" browser extension where you only get to make two clicks on any link per hour for a given domain on a blacklist of time sinks during certain hours.
- bmpafa 10y agoHere's an extension that can block sites by domain after a pre defined number of minutes on those sites: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankej... Here is more of a nuclear option that lets you micro manage your activity on an os-level. Unfortunately no Linux client afaik. A bit pricy, but very customizable and very effective: https://focusme.com https://focusme.com
- bytesandbots 10y agohttp://rescuetime.com/ http://rescuetime.com/ has clients for almost all OS including Linux but excluding iOS. It also has browser extensions.
- laurieg 10y agoForgive me if you aren't looking for advice, but I recommend a distraction notebook: Keep a small notebook beside you and promise yourself you are going to focus on the topic at hand for a period of time. When a thought, question or search topic pops into your brain, write it in the notebook. When you have some free time you can pick up the notebook at look up all those things. Of course, I often find that coming back to them they aren't all that important at all, and feeling of desperately needing to know has gone.
- mattalbie 10y agoI've done the same thing! It's been really useful in getting rid of the distracting urge to answer every thought that jumps into your mind.
- vorticalbox 10y agoDoesn't Cortana do this? Also unit dash can also search the web and local files.
- lfcipriani 10y agoI wrote about a cross-platform alternative using Terminal, specially if you work with multiple OSs https://hackernoon.com/cross-platform-productivity-tool-with-terminal-7dd0487ead93 https://hackernoon.com/cross-platform-productivity-tool-with...
- unhammer 10y agoThere are quite a few of these Quicksilver-clones these days: * Ulauncher http://ulauncher.io/ http://ulauncher.io/ * Albert https://github.com/albertlauncher/albert#albert- https://github.com/albertlauncher/albert#albert- * Synapse https://launchpad.net/synapse-project https://launchpad.net/synapse-project * Kupfer https://kupferlauncher.github.io/ https://kupferlauncher.github.io/ * Zazu http://zazuapp.org/ http://zazuapp.org/ * M-x counsel-linux-app http://oremacs.com/2016/03/16/counsel-linux-app/ http://oremacs.com/2016/03/16/counsel-linux-app/ I've tried a couple, but I always end up back to Alt+F2 in XFCE, since most of these launchers always start so slowly in comparison, and I never use any other features (more than once) than starting Firefox/Emacs/Terminal …
- ue_ 10y agoRofi is fast, customisable and nice.
- vortico 10y ago+1, it's the fastest of all that I've tried. It doesn't do too much out of the box, but it takes a couple frames to launch, as opposed to >1s for many of the alternatives.
- gremlinsinc 10y agoI like rofi + i3w on Antergos, after using tiled windows and all the hotkey goodness it'd be hard to switch back to a more window-ed experience.
- andrepd 10y agoI use synapse. It's lightning fast and does the job. I can't do without it! I'm going to test a few of those alternatives as well, thanks!
- nkg 10y agoAnyone remembers that Firefox extension ? I can't remember its name but it also had about the same funcitonalities.
- bmpafa 10y agoI love the idea of extending it with Javascript. Every service my company uses has an API that'd be (presumably) trivial to wire-in to this, making for a nice alternative to the traditional informational portal.
- screed 10y agoDefault Spotlight in macOS?
- throwaway2048 10y agoSo its an embedded webbrowser with built in bookmarks. Am i missing something here?
- rmrfrmrf 10y agoSeems more like it's Quicksilver built on a browser stack
- juandazapata 10y agoGreat, another electron app. This one takes almost 300mb of RAM, just sitting there, being idle and doing nothing: http://imgur.com/a/vITos http://imgur.com/a/vITos
- netsharc 10y agoThe question is, is it fast? It annoys me if I hit the shortcut keys and the window takes a long time to pop up, I use Find and Run Robot(1) on Windows and it shows up instantly. It even has plugins, but you have to gasp write them in C/C++! 1) https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/findrun/ https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/findrun/
- juandazapata 10y agoAfter I saw the memory consumption, I honestly didn't played with it a lot. It seems fast, but not as fast as Alfred (I use macOS).
- sschueller 10y agoOnly used 70mb in Windows. Nice to see an app like this for windows and not always something exclusively for osx.
- Mithaldu 10y agoYou miscounted something, it uses 210+MB on windows: http://i.imgur.com/EXSAKEK.png http://i.imgur.com/EXSAKEK.png
- sschueller 10y agoWindows 10 shows me this: http://imgur.com/vKDZU24 http://imgur.com/vKDZU24
- Mithaldu 10y agoAny Electron app, like Chrome, will run at least 3 processes, Cerebro even runs 5. However the default windows task manager doesn't group processes by child/parent relationships so the other processes Cerebro uses are further down in your view. To get the total you need to find all of them and sum them up. That might be easier in the Details tab. Or use Process Explorer instead.
- wideem 10y agohttp://imgur.com/a/Oyjqt http://imgur.com/a/Oyjqt Can't even launch the application
- eDISCO 10y agoI tend to use Gnome Do[1] as my launcher. I haven't observed any noticeable battery drain (on Arch) despite the fact that it runs in background. There's a neat comparison of different launchers available on Wikipedia[2]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME_Do https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME_Do 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_desktop_application_launchers#Linux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_desktop_applicat... As someone mentioned previously the Alt + F2 (or F3) works well enough in XFCE most of time. I'll give Cerebro a try...
- iKenshu 10y agoOn Windows... Are anyone using keypirinha? Is cerebro better?
- pymai 10y agoive been trying keypirinha since a few weeks ago. its not bad. its nice improvement over launchy and is being developed unlike launchy which hasnt been touched in years. having to change the settings from a text file in keypirinha is bit of a pain though. anyway, from what i can tell, cerebro is able to show you a lot more things and also has plugins. keypirinha just shows basic things like files and apps i think
- drinchev 10y agoOMG, another electron app that is meant to run as a daemon. It's terrible. I already have hard times with Slack taking more memory than i would expect from a chat. Yeah, I know that it's super hard to make native GUI these days, but please if you try to attract developer community with plugins and you have a relatively simple app, don't choose electron for that. Examples of good ol' native desktop apps : twitter for OSX.
- mcjiggerlog 10y agoWow, some of the comments in this thread are pretty harsh considering the developer has worked hard on providing what looks to me like a pretty cool free app. Nobody is forcing you to install it.
- juandazapata 10y agoSo, people shouldn't be able to comment their point of view because the developer worked hard?
- popey456963 10y agoI think people should be slightly less critical of design decisions enforced by a limited amount of time to work on a side-project that's free. Comments such as "why didn't you make everything from scratch" probably aren't going to contribute much to the conversation.
- philonoist 10y agoNo love for Listary?
- sandGorgon 10y agoI wonder why people dont use pyqt? my startup's first product was a Square-pos like tool built in pyqt and cross compiled to exe, dmg and linux executable. We made it run on Windows XP machine with 256 mb ram total. Oh and we embedded cherrypy into it. For lots of products with performance as a criterion, pyqt toolchain is so much better than electron. And programming in qt isnt bad at all.
- Longhanks 10y agoDeploying PyQT (statically, most end users don't have it installed) is a major PITA.
- sandGorgon 10y agothat's actually not true. we statically compiled the binary to include all qt dependencies and it ran out of the box - remember we were installing on low end POS machines and pyqt worked beautifully. Qt does not need to be dynamically linked. In fact the commercial versions of qt have even better toolchains.
- LeanderK 10y agoi see some criticism of electron in the comments because of it's high memory footprint. If i would have to create an offline app i would also choose electron, because of it's simplicity and my familiarity with the technology. Is there something being done or planned to reduce the footprint? Or something on the roadmap? I would guess a browser is just not optimised for a use-case comparable to Cerebro (running as a daemon).
- Mithaldu 10y ago> I would guess a browser is just not optimised for a use-case comparable to Cerebro (running as a daemon). That's pretty much it. There's no useful way to make electron slimmer in any way, since it comes with the full chrome browser in the backpack and there's nothing you can do, because chrome's being the base of the huge pyramid with your teeny tiny bits of html and js on top. It's useful for proto-typing or one-off apps, but for long-running things you're better of making it a chrome app directly (i.e. reusing Chrome's memory foot-print), or making it into a proper native app.
- lettersdigits 10y ago> https://github.com/KELiON/cerebro/blob/master/app/AppUpdater.js https://github.com/KELiON/cerebro/blob/master/app/AppUpdater... : > export default class AppUpdater { ...... why is this a class ? just so it can auto-exececute without being called ? i would prefer an 'export default function init(){ // init code'
- rounce 10y agoNot even. `export default new class ...` would be 'equivalent' to an IIFE; using CommonJS module caching to produce singleton behaviour. This should just export a function. That's it.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- binaryanomaly 10y agoGreat to see some open sourced based efforts in this area. Imho FOSS is a promising approach for this kind of helper apps. Although I've tried a few of the closed source alternatives I'm not yet definitely sold to one. A community driven approach could provide a better result in the long run. The best of luck for the future...
- ericmason 10y ago“Cerebro.app” can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer. I'm really curious why developers release software without signing it. The Mac developer account and code signing certificate seem like a small cost if you're releasing software you actually expect people to use. Personally, I see that warning and assume the developers aren't serious and/or don't care about their users and delete the software.
- FreakyT 10y agoPersonally, I support developers not signing apps out of principle. Gatekeeper on Mac OS, while ostensibly a "security" restriction, is nothing more than a blatant money-grab by Apple.
- pikzen 10y agoYears of work can still amount to absolute crap. You're not shielded from criticism because your software is free.
- sidcool 10y agoThere's difference between arrogant criticism and constructive feedback. Most of those who rudely criticize are those who rarely create anything. Instead they are mostly into commentaries.
- pikzen 10y agoAaaaah, the good old "you shouldn't critize if you haven't created anything argument". Easily applied to "you can't criticize music if you haven't recorded an album" and "Why are you criticizing this movie you haven't even filmed a blockbuster". Commentaries have a valid point, with or without creation.
- sidcool 10y agoI disagree. I can dislike a song. If I am able to talk to the singer/musician, I won't say 'You Suck', that would be rude.
- gwn7 10y agoI think that you are focusing on "rudeness" too much. This is the internet. And this is a (mainly) hacker community -who are not known for their politeness-, and good engineering matters for hackers. (as it should) I think that this is the perfect medium for rudeness. The whole reason people post their projects here is to get criticism of any kind. If one is disheartened because of a rude comment, one needs to grow up. One needs to learn how to deal with comments; learn to decide on which ones to take seriously and which ones to not.. The good thing about the internet is that most of us are anonymous here. So you can not judge my comments based on my identity (or my history, e.g. what i have done). Nor you can punch me in the face for being rude or something. The thing you get in exchange is honesty (hopefully). This is healthy. Let's embrace it, and keep politeness and politics for face-to-face meetings.
- codingdave 10y agoIs finding things such a pain point for many people? I work with a few tools/programs, and a few locations where my documents and data live. I know where those are and go to them so often it takes no effort. The few times I do need to go elsewhere, the tools that come with the OS work fine. So, sure, great, more power to you if you want to write a tool like this. I'm just not feeling the pain that would make me have any interest in giving it a try.
- fredsir 10y agoI don't use my mouse for navigation if I can help it. With Alfred (similar tool to this) I can navigation to any folder on my system, any contact, search on duckduckgo, translate words/sentences/currency, navigate my clipboard, restart/shutdown/lock my computer, open any app with just a keyboard shortcut and a few letters that specify what I'm going for. It's like a very precise search engine for your personal machine. It's amazing how great it works, and not having that available when I'm using a computer ruins things for me. If that is not enough, Alfred also has lots of other awesome features.
- motyar 10y agoFlashlight is my fav http://flashlight.nateparrott.com/ http://flashlight.nateparrott.com/
- ryanisinallofus 10y agoMac and Swift/Obj-C fanboys will always rail against anything that fails their purity tests. Electron certainly has some issues they need to work out, but Electron criticism doesn't need to dominate this comments section to the rate that it is.
- Mithaldu 10y agoFwiw, i work on windows and also reject anything electron that isn't designed to be started, do a thing, and closed quickly.
- myfonj 10y agoRelated: For fast filesystem search on Windows (NTFS) I cannot recommend enough Everything [0]. Instant search through all drives. This app really shines. Under 1 Mb install size, blazing fast interface (can be bound to global hotkey), command line interface, optional HTTP interface, small memory footprint (depends on the size of indices). Really, if you haven't seen it, check it out. It basically connects to the NTFS database, fo that's why it is instant. Still don't understand why OS does not do this. [0] http://voidtools.com/ http://voidtools.com/
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- otterpro 10y agoWow, this is really nice. It takes literally a second (or two) to index EVERYTHING. I'd use this as an alternative to Win10's Cortana/search.
- m3Lith 10y agoThere's also Wox [0], which provides a nicer UI/UX over top of Everything. Also has some interesting plugins. [0] http://www.getwox.com/ http://www.getwox.com/
- pragmatick 10y agoI've tried Wox and other launchers that include Everything several times and I always go back to having a launcher for, well, launching and using Everything for searching. For me the compact design of a launcher is not well suited to show a couple of file search results. But of course that also depends on what files you usually search for, how many results there will be and what you do with them. If, for example, you often search for documents it's fine. But I usually search for source code files and what not and there it's different.
- captn3m0 10y agoThis is the only tool I miss since I shifted from Windows to Linux almost a decade back. If you're on Windows, go install it right now. I use locate for now, but I'm still to find something that does it as well.
- gregparadee 10y agoSome of the comments in this thread are the exact opposite thing I would expect from this community and it is shameful. It's unfortunate that the top comment is one of these which could steer some people away from reading further. As many others in this thread have pointed out, Cerebro is a pretty cool app that borrows from some core OS functionality and improves on it. Is its design 100% perfect? Maybe not. However, instead of commenting the application isn't exactly the way YOU would have done it and complaining try offering some constructive criticism. If the app is memory hogging, not following best coding practices, or you have a cool idea of how something could be done instead share that feedback and offer better ways to do things. Not only does this benefit the developers working on this app but it helps others who may be working on becoming better developers themselves. I myself am a naive developer. However I enjoy developing in my free time to keep myself thinking and I enjoy learning new things. I frequently visit this community to see what others are working on and looking at all the cool applications that people develop is a great way to pass time. If I had worked on something really hard, posted it, and then received some of these comments I would be extremely discouraged. That said, if a Cerebro developer is reading, this looks like a really cool improvement on Spotlight (I use OSX). Keep up the good work and don't let the negative comments in here discourage you or your team!
- Mithaldu 10y ago> If the app is memory hogging, not following best coding practices, or you have a cool idea of how something could be done instead share that feedback and offer better ways to do things. In spirit i agree with you. In practice the problem here is, to use a really crude analogy: The Cerebro developers rented an empty mall for super cheap, then opened a single restaurant in it. Some people won't mind driving all the way there and walking through the entire thing to get to the restaurant, other people will. The advice then in that situation is to one of these: 1. Demolish the parts of the mall that aren't used, piece by piece, while trying to not knock over the restaurant situated on the third floor, so other people can build their houses on the now free space, closer to the restaurant. 2. Abandon it and build a new restaurant in the middle of the city. Everyone recognizes that both of these are very expensive solutions and unlikely to ever be implemented, so you end up with two kind of people. 1. Those who shrug and walk away saying nothing. 2. Those who go, with various amounts of emphasis: "Aw, i wish you hadn't done that." There is no happy middle ground possible here, sadly.
- amcrouch 10y agoI used Launchy for years but then when setting up my last day to day laptop switched to Wox (http://www.getwox.com/ http://www.getwox.com/) after trying Hain. It was too limited at that point. On Linux, I use Super (Windows) key to use the inbuilt launcher which meets all my requirements. If Windows had anywhere near this level of usefulness in its start menu I wouldn't need the third party Wox.
- otterpro 10y agoWox looks like a front-end to Everything (https://www.voidtools.com/ https://www.voidtools.com/), but with really nice UI and also plugins, etc. It looks nice.
- hexmiles 10y agoi tried this app, i actually love it. the fact is in electron is not that big of a deal, but i would awensome if i could share the electron instance between multiple electron app, but i guess is something hard. Good job dev
- raizu 10y agoEvery thread I have seen here on HN that presents another bloated Electron app seems to be filled with criticism, and I must admit that this restores my faith in humanity. If the consensus was that Electron apps is a good thing and we need more of them, it would be very depressing. I do think the criticism is productive, because it's usually not targeted against the developer or the app idea, but that it's built on the Electron framework. Maybe many developers using Electron do not have much experience and it seems like a good idea in their heads. In this case criticism is helpful because the developer will learn that Electron is bad and should be avoided. A crude analogy: If I was driving on an divided highway in the wrong lane without knowing, I would be very grateful if the first car I met in the opposite lane would use the horn and blink the lights to get my attention so I could immediately stop and turn around.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- uziar 10y agoEvery thread I have seen here on HN that presents another bloated Electron app seems to be filled with criticism, and I must admit that this restores my faith in humanity. If the consensus was that Electron apps is a good thing and we need more of them, it would be very depressing. I do think the criticism is productive, because it's usually not targeted against the developer or the app idea, but that it's built on the Electron framework. Maybe many developers using Electron do not have much experience and it seems like a good idea in their heads. In this case criticism is helpful because the developer will learn that Electron is bad and should be avoided. A crude analogy: If I was driving on an divided highway in the wrong lane without knowing, I would be very grateful if the first car I met in the opposite lane would use the horn and blink the lights to get my attention so I could immediately stop and turn around.
- nathancahill 10y agoNot as polished, but I wrote something similar that leverages Google or DuckDuckGo on top of Hammerspoon. If you're in to little tweaks like this to boost your productivity on a Mac, definitely check out Hammerspoon. Hammerspoon is quite light, and runs on Lua. Here's my version, Anycomplete: http://github.com/nathancahill/Anycomplete/ http://github.com/nathancahill/Anycomplete/ And the Show HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13065670 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13065670
- replete 10y agoYeah there are other similar apps. But this one is written in Javascript, so that is something going for it. More accessible, millions of packages to drop in easily. Nice job.
- tankmohit11 10y agoi just use alt+space in kde plasma 5.