Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux

#51

Post by throwawayffffas » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 9:41 AM UTC

imcritic wrote: post #2

I don't really see any value in such combines. You want some calculation? Run calc and do the calculation, do you save so much time by replacing the "run calc" step with "open launcher" that it's worth adding more software to your setup?

The reason I don't use this kind of thing, is the time spent parsing the results.

If I write teams, I want to get a single result that will be the teams app on my computer.

I don't want to get a wikipedia entry about teams, a random text document that has "teams" in it, news about microsoft teams, or the price of the latest shitcoin named TEAMS.

All that does is add cognitive load, regardless of whether the app is the first result, seeing and parsing the other results, takes focus away from the work at hand and contributes to fatigue.

I have a browser with an omnibox for the internet, search on my file explorer, and find and ag[1] in my terminal.

Specialized tools for specific jobs.

[1]. ag is like grep but faster also it's 30% shorter to type than ack the other faster grep alternative.

Re: Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux

#52

Post by Sophira » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 9:51 AM UTC

The readme suggests that Wayland users should add a udev rule to enable direct keyboard access to the user at the physical console (read: to any process spawned by the user at the physical console).

My understanding was that a major touted benefit to Wayland was that it prevents processes from being able to read the keyboard when not focused, unlike on X11, making keyloggers and such a thing of the past.

Doesn't adding a udev rule like this completely bypass that protection?

Re: Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux

#53

Post by rafram » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 12:09 PM UTC

throwawayffffas wrote: post #50

kstrauser wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a Mac, opening the launcher means pressing cmd-space at any time, getting a popup text entry field, typing "1+2", seeing the answer, and hitting esc to dismiss it. That's the entire workflow for operating a calculator, launching an app, searching Google, locating a file, or whatever. I challenge you to do that operation with a separate app more (or even as) efficiently. There are good tools for doing each of those…

The way I do it is, I type python in a new terminal, the terminal emulator is running at all times. So, its ctrl-s + c, python, enter, 1 + 2, enter. Slightly more work but meh.

Sure, but what does Python return if you type in "$100 in EUR" or "10 pounds in kg"?

Re: Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux

#54

Post by rjzzleep » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 12:47 PM UTC

sangeeth96 wrote: post #13

ByteAtATime wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point! I've actually thought about that before; I've tried to be extremely clear in the project's README with a disclaimer that this is a non-commercial hobby project and is not affiliated with the official Raycast team in any way. The name is just for identification, as the project's goal is to be a compatible, open-source alternative for the Linux community, a platform they don't currently serve. That being sa…

That shouldn't matter. They might even have a Linux version in the works, given they are doing Windows now. They are within their rights to ask you to get rid of it. You also seem to be using their brand assets like the logo. I get your intention and love what you were able to accomplish but if you intend for this to grow, you are better off doing this now.

They use react-native, no? One of the main issues is that all react-native implementations are half baked and dead.

Re: Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux

#55

Post by throwawayffffas » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 12:56 PM UTC

rafram wrote: post #53

throwawayffffas wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I do it is, I type python in a new terminal, the terminal emulator is running at all times. So, its ctrl-s + c, python, enter, 1 + 2, enter. Slightly more work but meh.

Sure, but what does Python return if you type in "$100 in EUR" or "10 pounds in kg"?

That's what your browser is for.

My main problem with that kind of launcher is that if I write "gimp" on my launcher there is only one correct answer, launching gimp. Everything else is just noise.

The choice to offer all that other functionality detracts from the main one.

Re: Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux

#56

Post by wlonkly » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 2:28 PM UTC

kstrauser wrote: post #29

ByteAtATime wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point! I've actually thought about that before; I've tried to be extremely clear in the project's README with a disclaimer that this is a non-commercial hobby project and is not affiliated with the official Raycast team in any way. The name is just for identification, as the project's goal is to be a compatible, open-source alternative for the Linux community, a platform they don't currently serve. That being sa…

> The name is just for identification That’s precisely what they’d dislike about it. You’d be creating “brand confusion” by using their trademark in your own name. You couldn’t make “My Cola (Recreating Coke)” without getting an expensive and inconvenient letter from their legal team.

It's worse than that -- "Recreating Raycast" is just the blog post title, the project is called "raycast-linux".

Re: Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux

#57

Post by kstrauser » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 2:38 PM UTC

throwawayffffas wrote: post #55

rafram wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but what does Python return if you type in "$100 in EUR" or "10 pounds in kg"?

That's what your browser is for. My main problem with that kind of launcher is that if I write "gimp" on my launcher there is only one correct answer, launching gimp. Everything else is just noise. The choice to offer all that other functionality detracts from the main one.

Launchers compete on their smartness. One that didn’t show Gimp as the top result wouldn’t have users very long. You can also turn off the results you don’t like.

Re: Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux

#58

Post by kstrauser » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 2:42 PM UTC

wlonkly wrote: post #56

kstrauser wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The name is just for identification That’s precisely what they’d dislike about it. You’d be creating “brand confusion” by using their trademark in your own name. You couldn’t make “My Cola (Recreating Coke)” without getting an expensive and inconvenient letter from their legal team.

It's worse than that -- "Recreating Raycast" is just the blog post title, the project is called "raycast-linux".

Oh dear. Yeah, that’s guaranteed to end badly.

OP: please do change this ASAP so that the Raycast gang doesn’t protest the really neat project you’ve made!

Re: Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux

#59

Post by Imustaskforhelp » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 2:52 PM UTC

211 MB appimage is wild when your premis is linux

What surprises me here is that tauri is supposedly meant for smaller sizes but it doesn't seem to be the case here.

Also, this could be better an issue but shoot, here I go. ./raycast-linux_0.1.0_amd64.AppImage WebSocket server listening on ws://127.0.0.1:7265 Starting initial file index build. Spotlight shortcut: HotKey { mods: Modifiers(ALT), key: Space, id: 65598 } [Snippets] Wayland detected, using evdev for snippet expansion. Updating currency rates... Soulver calculator initialized and currency provider has started updating. Could not create default EGL display: EGL_BAD_PARAMETER. Aborting... Successfully updated 175 currency rates.

Andd it doesn't work.

I personally use something like dmenu (fuzzel) except with my own scripts and keybinds (hyprland).

Re: Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux

#60

Post by jamil7 » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 3:11 PM UTC

rjzzleep wrote: post #54

sangeeth96 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That shouldn't matter. They might even have a Linux version in the works, given they are doing Windows now. They are within their rights to ask you to get rid of it. You also seem to be using their brand assets like the logo. I get your intention and love what you were able to accomplish but if you intend for this to grow, you are better off doing this now.

They use react-native, no? One of the main issues is that all react-native implementations are half baked and dead.

The launcher UI is AppKit while the extension APIs allow third-party developers to write them in TS and a React subset. They have a custom renderer for React that turns that into AppKit primatives. So similar in concept but custom and specific to their usecase.