App Launcher Showdown

• Background
  • Requirements
  • Ideas I might want
  • Nice to haves
• Contenders
  • Alfred - MAYBE
  • HammerSpoon - NO
  • Loungy - NO
  • QuickSilver - MAYBE
  • Raycast - MAYBE
  • Sol - NO
  • Spotlight Search - NO
  • ueli - TRYING
  • Wox - MAYBE

Background

I currently use Spotlight search to open apps. Clifford suggested I use RayCast. I really just want something

Requirements

• Settings that are easily version controllable
• launch apps
• run ticket_typora from a search bar instead of launching a terminal
  • It would be nice if the args for this had frecency stuff
• grep my notes from a search bar
• go links support
• glean search
• find operating system settings

Ideas I might want

• Clipboard history?
• chatgpt chat?
• Calculator
• Browser Bookmark search

Nice to haves

• cross platform
• open source - almost a requirement - I will be using this app daily and putting a lot of work extending it
• efficient?

Contenders

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32402631

Alfred - MAYBE

https://www.alfredapp.com/shop/

• macOS only
• not open source
• 59 lbs for free lifetime upgrades

HammerSpoon - NO

• macOS only
• I'd have to build a launcher on top...

Loungy - NO

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39296505

• MacOS only
• not ready for production yet

QuickSilver - MAYBE

https://qsapp.com/

• Open source
• mac specific
• hard to version control scripts - https://docs.qsapp.com/documentation/faq#how-do-i-clear-quicksilvers-cache
• looks like you can run commands: https://qsapp.com/manual/plugins/terminal/ , https://github.com/quicksilver/Quicksilver/issues/2411

Raycast - MAYBE

• MacOS only
• monthly pricing for non-free version
• uses AI features?
• Recommended by Clifford

Sol - NO

https://github.com/ospfranco/sol

• macOS only
• open source
• Doesn't look like you can write plugins for it

The repo looks odd like the author doesn't care about repo hygiene

Spotlight Search - NO

• MacOS

ueli - TRYING

https://ueli.app/#/features

• open source
• cross platform
• Electron
• doesn't seem to have custom plugins, but can run scripts.
• Linux support coming

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Can't search Firefox bookmarks?

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Can't choose Wezterm for shell:

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Trying to do ticket_typora makes me wish for my shell's frecency stuff

Wox - MAYBE

https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox

• cross platform
• looks promising
• no homebrew installation