nowfound

Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Terminal-based application launcher for Unix-like systems

Application launcher for Linux. Contribute to lchsk/xstarter development by creating an account on GitHub.

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Terminal-based application launcher for Unix-like systems launched in 2017; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1
    Ulauncher▲119

    An application launcher for Linux 🐧

    2017 · ulauncher.io · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Hi HN community, I’m Zach, founder and CEO of Warp, and am excited to show you Warp, a fast Rust-based terminal that’s easy to use and built for teams. As of today, Warp is in public beta and any Mac user can download it. It works with bash, zsh, and fish. The terminal’s teletype-like interface has made it hard for the CLI to thrive. After 20 years of programming, I still find it hard to copy a command’s output; I always forget how to use `tar`; and I always have to relearn how to move my cursor. To fix fundamental accessibility issues, I believe we need to start innovating on the terminal,…

    2022 · warp.dev · its alternatives →

  3. 3NN
  4. 4

    Hello HN! I want to show you MyNixOS.com - a website I've been working on this year to make it easy to create and share Nix and NixOS configurations. Nix is a powerful tool to deploy software in a reproducible way, and with NixOS you can control your whole operating system through a declarative configuration. Starting out with Nix was exciting, but it definitely had a challenging learning curve. This made me start building a website focused on making it easier to create and share Nix flakes, which are the core unit of software deployment in Nix. Using the website, you can create flakes…

    2022 · mynixos.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Hey HN! I'm a huge fan of Raycast, but as a Linux user, I was always disappointed it wasn't available on my main OS. This summer, I decided to just build it myself. This project has the goal of being interoperable with Raycast itself, including a majority of the extensions. It's built with Tauri and Rust on the backend, with a Svelte frontend. The biggest challenge was getting it to run existing Raycast extensions, which required building a custom React renderer as well as making a custom API. I also wrote a quick post, which I hope to expand on in the future, about this project. You can…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    Hi HN! I’ve always been a fan of application launchers, and I was impressed by the approach the Raycast team took — especially their extension system. About six months ago I started building something similar for Linux, aiming to integrate deeply at the OS level and give extensions a lot of power. Vicinae is written in C++ with Qt Widgets. I chose Widgets over QML for more imperative control of the UI, especially around extension handling. So far that’s worked well — modern C++ is great. To support my goals I built a number of custom widgets, including a fully virtualized list that can…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    A terminal renderer written in pure PHP. Contribute to soloterm/screen development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Fast, collaborative live terminal sharing over the web - ekzhang/sshx

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9
    Fig▲216

    Visual apps and shortcuts for your terminal

    2020 · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Hello! This is Edgar and Robbie and we built nix-snapshotter. nix-snapshotter brings native understanding of Nix packages to containerd. We built this because Nix is a great fit for making efficient containers. They don't need an OS because Nix captures all dependencies exactly. However, the current process of creating Nix images is subpar because one needs to transform Nix packages into a format that container runtimes understand. Using nix-snapshotter, instead of downloading image layers, packages come directly from the Nix store. Packages can be fetched from a binary cache or built on the…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11TL
  12. 12

    Launch any file, folder or app from your Mac menu bar

    2019 · onmyway133.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    A fully-featured lisp/scheme shell written in Racket. - DexterLagan/lsh

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    Hi HN, I’m Mike, the founder and creator of Wave, a cross-platform open-source terminal that supports inline rendering, modern UI, and persistent sessions. I love the command line; I’ve been using it for over 25 years, starting with a Linux box I made with spare parts in my college dorm room. But while other devtools have been modernized, the terminal has been stuck, with the same basic functionality for over 40-years. What if your command line terminal could display more than just text? That’s crazy right (I can hear the screams of thousands of graybeard sysadmins). Not all the time, but…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Linux-like Command Line Interface minimal for your device!

    2017 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    OpenTerm, a sandboxed command line interface for iOS - louisdh/openterm

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Web Apps using PyQt5. Contribute to Backup08/webapps development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    A macOS terminal with a Run button that knows your project

    15d ago · devterminal.app · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    I've created a GitHub Action for running commands on multiple platforms. This includes platforms that GitHub Actions don't natively support. It currently supports FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD. OpenBSD can run on x86-64 and ARM64, the other operating systems run on x86-64. Some of the features that are supported include: * Multiple operating system with one single action * Multiple versions of each operating system * Allows to use default shell or Bash shell * Low boot overhead * Fast execution * Runs on both macOS and Linux runners Compared to similar solutions like…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20
    KDash▲76

    A simple terminal dashboard for Kubernetes built with Rust

    2021 · kdash.cli.rs · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Open a web search in your terminal. Contribute to zquestz/s development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2016 · github.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Bring console to terminal. Contribute to djyde/RocketLog development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2015 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Let's look at how to bring Linux X11 apps to the Mac desktop with Docker. Run and test multiple versions of apps. Secure your surfing through isolation.

    2016 · blog.alexellis.io · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    A Command Launcher for Chrome

    2020 · its alternatives →

Also compare

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →