
Jarvis, an Alfred Alternative for Windows - GordonS
https://github.com/spectresystems/jarvis
======
traskjd
No commits for about a year, with a readme saying it’s early in dev suggests
this project is largely dead. Am I misreading something here?

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happypatrik
It's not dead, but it's done in my perspective since it does what I wanted it
to do when I created it.

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boublepop
Then I suggest updating the readme:

> Jarvis is currently under development, and all features are not there yet.

Both of those statements are false if what you say is true.

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happypatrik
Sure, send a PR.

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craftinator
I don't think that is a PR worthy issue... That's more of a lazy issue.

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WalterSobchak
Wox Launcher[1] is another great alternative. It appears to be more active
than Jarvis.

[1] [https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox](https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox)

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filmgirlcw
There is a fork of sorts [1] that is even more active for Wox.

[1]: [https://github.com/jjw24/Wox](https://github.com/jjw24/Wox)

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GordonS
I couldn't see anything about how the features in the fork compare to upstream
- do you know what the major differences are?

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filmgirlcw
Mostly bug fixes and more active development so far.

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Meph504
I have seen so many applications like this, and they seem to miss that the
backend of windows search is actually pretty amazing, and has providers for a
multitude of file types both binary and text, which allows for full content
search and not just file name, title, and description.

The truth is too its actually really easy to access programmatically.

Instead of them rolling their own indexer, they should use something like
elastic which has an on par number of providers for various file types.

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jjoonathan
If the backend of Windows Search is amazing, why is the front-end user
experience abysmal? The problems just don't seem like front end problems: the
search is occasionally slow, it doesn't even reliably find installed programs
by their name, and if the result pops up while your next keystroke is underway
it will sometimes lose the result even if that keystroke is correct, and
somehow finding the result again will require removing more than the single
correct keystroke that made your desired result disappear. The mind boggles.

I'm not familiar with Windows internals, so I should clarify: I'm talking
about the search functionality invoked by typing after pressing the Windows
key.

If I were an app developer in this space I would _not_ trust my core
functionality to anything even remotely associated with the above, and I
strongly suspect that the complexity of handling the long tail of
functionality you mentioned has something to do with why the windows-key
search experience sucks. Certainly the fundamental task is not intractable
because Spotlight (Apple's search) has been Good Enough for a while. IIRC it
became tolerable around the time SSDs became standard. Windows-key search
isn't quite there yet. Until it is, I'll take good execution on the basic 80%
of functionality any day.

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Meph504
The front end is a mystery to me, windows search backend is a queryable
system, it's reliable, impressively fast, and suffers from none of the issues
that have plagued not only the win10 search, but windows explorer as well.

I've never understood why it's performance has been deemed acceptable.

I'm on my phone right now so forgive the random sample, but this gives the
gist of its usage.
[https://stackoverflow.com/a/34340288](https://stackoverflow.com/a/34340288)

The only issue I have seen is when the index corrupts, this was more common in
win7, and in our research it was often the result from an over aggressive AV
jamming up the process.

But I've written a number of systems that make use of this, and when comparing
other ways to accomplish this sort of in depth search, it's the most reliable
and manageable.

It does have the caveat that it works best on places indexed by the OS, and
adding locations to the indexer via code requires some pinvoke stuff most
people aren't comfortable with.

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tw04
Just enable the next-gen search bar for Windows 10 - I've used both and the
native tool is far better on the latest versions of Windows 10 (at least in my
testing).

[https://www.thurrott.com/cloud/144856/microsoft-testing-
new-...](https://www.thurrott.com/cloud/144856/microsoft-testing-new-macos-
spotlight-like-search-ui-windows-10)

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anigbrowl
Somewhat. The other day I typed 'draw', wanting LibreOffice Draw (which is
installed), but the top result was (Microsoft) Paint.

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lhoff
Thats true. But it learns pretty quick. It will become the top result if you
choose the rigth (LibreOffice Draw) once or twice.

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newscracker
Keypirinha, which is also open source, [1] seems to be better maintained. See
keypirinha.com for more.

[1]:
[https://github.com/Keypirinha/Keypirinha](https://github.com/Keypirinha/Keypirinha)

~~~
hananbo
I've been using it for a while now great customization! highly recommend

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thedaemon
I always had a fondness for Gnome DO, which I believe predates Alfred by a few
years. [https://do.cooperteam.net/](https://do.cooperteam.net/) Does anyone
know the original text based launcher? Quicksilver perhaps?

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filmgirlcw
I think Quicksilver is the one that started the trend that has persisted for
the last 16 years or so — and that trend certainly increased with Spotlight’s
introduction with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger in 2005 — although as mentioned below,
LaunchBar predates it by 6 or 7 years. But Quicksilver really introduced (as
far as I remember) the UI that most other modern launchers still use, and that
Spotlight later “stole” — which is to do the search in the middle of the
desktop.

LaunchBar is probably the OG, but I think most of what has come since
(including LB, which remains excellent), was influenced by Quicksilver in the
early aughts.

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kitsunesoba
Yep, I was a big QS fan back in the day but switched to Alfred for its cleaner
look and stayed for its crazy speed and stability.

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phoe-krk
Alfred is for Mac, Jarvis is for Windows. What similar programs are there for
the Linuxfolk?

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nikki93
I use dmenu:
[https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/](https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/)

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centur
I've been looking for similar tools for Windows and found that combination of
voidtools' Everything + Wox works nicely for me.

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sombremesa
This doesn't seem to have anything remotely similar to powerpack. To give an
example, can this help me get passwords out of LastPass into my clipboard in a
couple keystrokes? Can it help me change what Spotify song is playing? Can it
help me find and kill processes? Alfred can do all that and much much more.

If it isn't even in the same ballpark of tools (i.e. something that supports
programmable workflows and has a bona fide community building such
extensions), don't call it an alternative.

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yumaikas
It's not an alfred alternative, but Everything Search,
([https://voidtools.com](https://voidtools.com)) is _really_ nifty.

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catalystic
Just to get feedback on our early stage project, what do folks here think
about a similar launcher but for saas apps and on can run on any website?

Project: Navigator -
[https://navigator.bytebeacon.com](https://navigator.bytebeacon.com)

We're still building the backend, but playing with the widget should give you
an idea of what the tool can do. It 's not meant to complete with desktop
based launchers like the one mentioned in the thread so far.

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exhilaration
Just hit win+s in Windows 10, it's not quite as nice as spotlight on the Mac,
but it helps keep your hands on the keyboard if you're transitioning to
Windows.

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foolinaround
How does this compare with launchy?
[https://www.launchy.net/](https://www.launchy.net/)

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thelazydogsback
just gave it a try -- looks like it's hard-coded for 640x480 screens or
something -- it renders so small I literally cannot read any of the text...

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ComputerGuru
Not hard-coded for a particular resolution but hard-coded for a particular
DPI.

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happypatrik
Not hard coded for a particular DPI, it just doesn't take DPI into account
since I always run with DPI settings set to 100%.

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coding123
Is this like Google Desktop? (Old product from 2000 era) Does it index word
documents?

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qmmmur
I much prefer KeyPirinha.

