The world isn’t short on keyboard-based Linux launchers. Albert, Ulauncher, rofi and GNOME Do (if you’re old enough to remember that one) are among those I’ve written about in the past.
Rudra is a new spin on this old staple – albeit without the extensibility dedicated quick launchers provide. What’s different here is that it’s implemented as a GNOME Shell extension, not a standalone app.
The developer of Rudra, Nark Agni, describes it as a “lightning-fast, keyboard-centric launcher […] designed for power users”. Though inspired by Mac apps like Alfred and Raycast, it is far less capable than those.
To open Rudra you press ctrl + shift + space (the keyboard shortcut is configurable). This pulls up a traditional launcher-style input box from which you can:
- Search and open installed apps – type, arrow to select, enter to open
- Search for system settings panels – e.g., ‘display’, ‘network’, etc
- Search and open files in your home folder – press . key then type
- Search Google or YouTube – type
gorytthen keyword - Run commands – tap > then type s (simple) command
There’s smart autocomplete for app and settings matches, with the app guessing a match based what you are typing, as you type. When you see an inline suggestion that matches, press tab or the right arrow key to complete the suggestion.
Rudra is configurable (and based on its choice of default font, hurrah for that). You can change the font, colours, opacity and border radius of the launcher UI. Want it to appear on a specific part of your screen? You can dial in location settings too.
GNOME Shell launcher vs Rudra
GNOME Shell already includes an on-demand, keyboard-friendly launcher (with extensible capabilities) you can use to find apps, files, do calculations, check the time, find emoji and also search the web and YouTube with extensions. It is, however, full-screen.
Rudra offers a more discrete, Spotlight-esque UI. For some of you, this will be more appealing than hitting super and having all your content obscured by a full-screen treatment. If you’ve longed for a compact analog, without losing the main overview, try it out.
It’s free, open-source software. Code is up on GitHub. You can install the latest version from the GNOME Extensions website at the link below. It supports GNOME 45 through 49. One thing to note: you need the libglib2.0-bin package installed.