Gnome Do – App Launcher for Linux
by Mandar Vaze on February 4, 2009
in Linux, Productivity, Ubuntu
If you have read the about page, you know I started my career on unix, hence my love for command line.I genuinely feel that command line is efficient than GUI. Most of the times I can achieve the result much quicker using the keyboard, than using mouse. So when I heard and read about Quick Silver application, I was jealous of folks who use OS X. Soon I realized that although windows doesn’t have as good an alternative as QuickSilver (or QS, as they fondly call it) there are options like Launchy, DOMercury and my current favorite Executor.
So when I finally installed Ubuntu on home machine, I wanted an equivalent for Linux as well. I had read about Gnome Do long ago, and when I looked at it (back then) it was in a very nascent state (plus I didn’t have working Linux machine at home)
So what is so special about Gnome DO ?
It provides quick access to variety of task you would do on day to day basis. e.g. To start Firefox browser, all you need to type is “Fi”, and Gnome Do detects that you may want to start Firefox. See the screenshot below. Underlined text is what user has typed from the keyboard.
Launching Firefox from Gnome DO
But even my shell has auto completion, so I can start Firefox, just by typing “fi” (and tab, to complete the command). But Gnome DO does far more than launching applications. It takes in parameters that you would pass on to the apps. You can “tweet” from the same interface, as well as add an even to your Google calendar. It does this via plugins. With plugins, the possibilities are endless. Following is only the sample of what all actions you can do from Gnome Do interface, without ever touching mouse.
Plugins
With Twitter plugin, Twit this is added as an action. Once this plugin is configured, newer tweets keep popping up on your screen as they become available. You can also take a screen shot of current window, or the entire screen.
Take a Shot !!
Gnome DO is not installed by default, but it is is very easy to install. Follow these steps :
- Start Synaptic Package Manager (You may need to enter your password, if you haven’t logged in as root, and you know, you shouldn’t
) - Select Not Installed from the left hand side list
- Put Gnome DO the search box
- Select gnome do from the available list, tick the check-box to install the application
- Some additional packages may also be marked as needed (e.g gnome-do-plugins) Allow them to be installed as well.
- Click Apply button, and allow the installation to complete.
- Once the installation is complete, Gnome DO is available under Accessories menu
Note : Head over to Flickr for a lot more Screen shots of Gnome DO in action !!
