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I consider the perfect command launcher must be something like: 

Windows Start menu + 
OSX Spotlight + 
Enso + 
Quick Silver ( or gnome-do )  + 
Google Chrome Omni bar + 
Mozilla Ubiquity +
Firefox awesome bar  +  Bare Command prompt.

Would such piece of software be possible?

What would be the implications?

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Just to note that Launchy is a good Windows equivalent for Quick Silver / gnome-do – Alistair Knock Jul 15 '09 at 10:00
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I find the question to be lacking as a) any piece of software is in theory possible and b) obviously too big for anyone to bother to create such a piece of software. – Thor K.H Jul 16 '09 at 0:10
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Eh? Most of those programs are basically the same, how do you envisage combining them? – dbr Jul 28 '09 at 6:43
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You can ask for a program meeting your needs. But "let's dream about it and imagine how it would be" is a discussion, and shouldn't be on this site. – Gnoupi Jan 18 '10 at 9:40
@Gnoupi: Not really, the question is more on the line "If it's possible and/or what is needed/implicated to have it." – Oscar Reyes Jan 18 '10 at 21:20
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closed as not constructive by grawity, Bobby, techie007, ChrisF, studiohack♦ Jan 12 at 17:13

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12 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

I'll have to say Launchy.

  • It works both on Windows and Linux (packages for debian),
  • It's really extensible, with the availavility of a lot of useful plugins (I specially love cmd > and google >),
  • I can map it to Alt + F2 to wich I'm used to on KDE, and the standard configuration (Alt + Space) is pretty comfortable too,
  • Skinable, with pretty skins by default.
  • A lot more...
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I hate Alt-Space - it's Windows' WM shortcut - so I can't maximise windows with alt-space, x. – person-b Jul 15 '09 at 22:14
You can change the hotkey for bringing up Launchy - I use Alt-ESC – marc_s Aug 7 '09 at 21:54
My only gripe with Launchy is that even now, after 9 years of Limited User accounts with XP, Vista and W7, the installer has to be run with administrator privileges. – njd Jan 18 '10 at 10:14
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up vote 3 down vote

I use Launchy, and I think it's pretty good.

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up vote 2 down vote

Funny, I blogged about this the other day. I think the "perfect launcher" consists of:

RocketDock + Launchy + Hotkeys.

Depending on where you are while computing, sometimes it makes more sense to use the mouse to fire something off, sometimes to use a simple hotkey, sometimes to get an "autocomplete" while you're trying to figure things out.

What I really like is that Windows 7 has all of this built in natively, between the task bar and the search box that searches your start menu when you hit the Window Key.

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up vote 2 down vote

Bayden Systems' SlickRun all the way for me, can't do without.

SlickRun is a free floating command line utility for Windows. SlickRun gives you almost instant access to any program or website.

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up vote 1 down vote

I use Start++, it is an enhancement for the Start Menu in Windows Vista that allows shortcut commands, searches, gadgets, etc.

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Very cool, although too bloated for my taste. – musicfreak Jan 19 '10 at 6:59
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up vote 0 down vote

Most of the above tools that you mention overlap greatly.

Combining all of the above into one tools would most likely create an application that is not really easy to use, uses a lot of resources and is not really user-friendly.

In my opinion, the ideal program launcher would do exactly what it needs to do: quickly provide access to programs that have to be launched in one uniform way.

To answer your question, the implication of the above would be that an application that tries to do everything would most likely fail before it even gets of the ground.

Applications and interfaces need focus.

Focus calms users, sets them at ease and gives them ease of access to anything within the scope of the application without bothering them with needless interface goodies or options that are rarely used.

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Of course, a Frankenstein attempt to unify them should be avoided by all means! :::) – Oscar Reyes Jul 15 '09 at 10:10
while I do hate this point of view, it's mostly correct. Attempts at unification not only fail because they're difficult. They also fail because unification is, in many cases, impossible. But program launching? I think that's something that could be unified :) – Yar Jan 10 '10 at 16:41
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up vote 0 down vote

I don't get all the hype about program launchers.

I use the start menu for most things. I put common programs in the quick launch bar. For really uncommon stuff I browse to the directory and run the .exe. For common files I sometimes create custom toolbars for a project and group a bunch of shortcuts together.

I don't feel like I need anything else.

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Do you know that by putting shortcuts in the quick launch bar, you get automatic keyboard shortcuts in the form of Win+1, Win+2, Win+3, etc? That's why I use quick launch (well, it's 7's taskbar, but whatever).... – R. Martinho Fernandes Jul 15 '09 at 9:55
@Martinho: No, I didn't know that. (Doesn't seem to work for me though. XP-sp3 right now. I'll try it on win7 when I get home) – Simon P Stevens Jul 15 '09 at 10:06
@Simon P Stevens: It works since Vista. – mwore Jul 15 '09 at 11:02
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@Simon: I've got Launchy at work scanning through my Program Files folder, so everything that I need to open any program is a few keystrokes away. For example, SQL Server Mangement bla bla 2005 is "alt+F2 sql", Visual Studio 2005 is "alt+F2 stu", access to my webserver is configured to be "alt+F2 webserv", Firefox is "alt+F2 fi", etc. – voyager Jul 22 '09 at 3:14
@Martinho: Great tip! – Lee Harrison Jan 11 at 20:35
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up vote 0 down vote

For now I've settled on the Google Quick Search Box http://www.google.com/quicksearchbox/

It launches, it searches, and it integrates very well with EverNote and Twitter.

On a Mac, you can of course go QuickSilver (I used that before QSB, even wrote small scripts for it), but QSB "just works" without keeping up with scripts and settings. Also, QuickSilver is ind of abandoned since it's developer now works at Google. On QSB among other things.

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up vote 0 down vote

Enso Humanized is pretty damn close to the perfect launcher for me. I mean it doesn't feature any of that bare command functionality, but considering that you can spell-check with it, as well as launch programs and even swtich between windows (instead-ah alt tabbing your way though them) it's a pretty good little launcher.

Now I really wish they'd fix the functionality that lets you switch between open tabs in Firefox, but it's free so you can't ask for everything.

Oh, what do you know...the team that wrote this is working on Ubiquity for Mozilla. The only trouble with Ubiquity is that it only works on Mozilla. I need something that works on the tabs of all browsers (since I'm a web developer and often need to work with multiple browsers).

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except for the "open..." need that is my choice too on Windows. – Oscar Reyes Aug 25 '09 at 16:41
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up vote 0 down vote

FARR (Find and Run Robot) is my preferred launcher on Windows. It has a ton more features than I use, but it is fast without having to churn on creating an index.

From the program page:

It's is a program for keyboard maniacs -- it uses an adaptive "live search" function to rapidly find programs and documents on your computer as you type.

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up vote 0 down vote

Nothing is perfect.

I find most launchers too complex. I don’t want indexing, caching, or anything that possibly can result in different actions based on the same input. So I’ve created my own open source launcher for Windows. I try to follow the suckless.org philosophy to have it suck as little as possible.

Redusage launches, and optionally also switches between, applications, files, directories, and websites. It googles, launches URLs directly, and it can also be used as a password manager that works in almost any Windows application.

It’s technically simpler than most of the alternatives. Its weakness compared some of the others is that you need to define all entries manually. You do that in a text file with your favorite editor. While it results in good control and great performance, it requires some effort on your part.

http://redusage.com/

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up vote -1 down vote

Actually, Gnome-Do is doing all (or most) of these things...

You can:

  • Launch any program installed on the system
  • Navigate to any folder
  • execute commands directly
  • Start a WebSearch for what you entered
  • Control the MediaPlayer
  • Browse the Browser-History/Favorites
  • there are over 5 dozen AddOns to it, adding additional functionality
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he already states this in his answer. – TutorialPoint Jan 4 '10 at 16:02
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