In my last post I mentioned that I’m rather fond of the Windows based Launchy app. I am also a linux user, and I kinda missed this functionality when using my Kubuntu laptop. If you are like me, and you were looking for a Quicksilver/Launchy like launcher applications for Linux, look no further.
Katapult, is precisely what you are looking for. It works very similarly to Launchy and uses the same shortcut Alt+Space to activate.
Simply run it, hit Alt+Space and start typing. Katapult will try to match what you type to installed programs. My only complaint about Katapult is that the pattern matching algorithm is not perfect. For example I was trying to launch KSnapshot and typed in Snapshot and got no results. Launchy usually is able to pick up on partial matches like this one.
[tags]katapult, launchy, quicksiver, launcher, launcher application, linux, kde[/tags]
I would use this except I always have an xterm open somewhere on my screen.
It saves keystrokes though – instead of typing in xterm& you can just type xt and hit enter. :)
It also has a built in calculator.
[quote comment=”4406″]It saves keystrokes though – instead of typing in xterm& you can just type xt and hit enter. :)[/quote]
alias xt=xterm&
:-)
Yes, you are right.
But with Katapult you don’t have to set up aliases beforehand. :P
Yes, I understand. I actually use Launchy whenever I have to work with Windows and I’m glad to see a Linux solution.
the new version of Launchy which just came out is written in QT, so it’s cross-platform. They’re working on porting it to Linux right now–I’d guess it’ll be out early 2008.
And now the latest version has Linux support :)