Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

Kupfer Quick Launcher Ported To Python 3 And GTK 3, Sees New Release After 4 And A Half Years [PPA]

After around 4 and a half years of inactivity, a new Kupfer (quick launcher) version was released 3 days ago, followed by 3 more releases since then.

The application has a new developer who ported the application to Python 3, GTK 3 and GObject Introspection, while also fixing various bugs.

Kupfer v300

Albert Quick Launcher 0.9.0 Released With External Extensions Support

Albert is a quick launcher for Linux inspired by Alfred (Mac). It can be used to run applications, open files, search the web, open bookmarks in your web browser, calculate math expressions, and more.

Albert quicklauncher

`Albert` Quicklauncher PPA Packages Updated

`Albert`, a quick launcher for Linux, has received quite a few updates lately, fixing many of the bugs you may have encountered in the early versions, along with other changes.


Albert allows you to quickly run applications, open files or bookmarks (Chromium only), search the web, calculate and more. The application is inspired by Alfred (Mac), is written in C++ and based on the Qt framework, and it's desktop environment agnostic so you can use it with any desktop environment.

`Albert`: A Fast, Lightweight Quick Launcher For Linux

`Albert` is a relatively new quick launcher for Linux, which might remind you of Alfred (Mac) or Synapse (Linux). Using it, you can quickly launch applications, open files or perform web searches.

Albert quick launcher

Kupfer v206 Released With Improved Runtime Memory Usage, PPA Now Available For Lucid Too

Kupfer

After finally getting themes support about 2 weeks ago, another Kupfer version (v206) was released today bringing a huge list of bug fixes and more importantly, reduced memory usage. The changelog says the Kupfer runtime memory should be reduced by 10-30% thanks to the reimplementation of icon cache.

Kupfer (v205) Gets A New User Interface. Finally!

Kupfer is a quick launcher (like Gnome DO or Synapse) which comes with many very useful plugins but always lacked a nice user interface. Well, an update today finally brings some UI love for Kupfer. Check out the new Kupfer interface:

Kupfer 205

Synapse 0.2.2 Gets Relevancy Service, Three Plugins And More

Synapse 0.2.2

Synapse, the new awesome looking quick-launcher for Linux reached version 0.2.2 today, getting some of the features many of you have requested:
  • Most importantly, Synapse got a relevancy service - the applications you use the most will be on top of the search results (Zeitgeist is used for this).
  • Support for basic transliteration when searching for applications - therefore you shouldn't need to type accents (if your language has them)
  • 3 new plugins: Open Search (search the web - it currently supports Google search and Google Maps), Locate (find files on your filesystem) and Gnome Screensaver (this was already available in the version in the PPA for some time).

Synapse google search
(Synapse 0.2.2 - Google Search plugin)

Kupfer Monochrome Icons


WebUpd8 reader Nasser Alshammari sent us some nice Kupfer monochrome icons that go well with the Ubuntu Ambiance and Radiance themes. He writes:

The only side effect of this is that it'll replace the colorful logo in the menu entry and in the "About" dialog of Kupfer. So until this issue is solved and for all the monochrome fanatics out there, they can do it this way for now.

To install them, replace the ~/.icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/kupfer.svg icon with one of the icons below.


Download Kupfer Monochrome icons


Many thanks and credits for the icons and screenshot: Nasser Alshammari