Expose, LaunchBar, Butler on Linux?

[James Gregory]

On Tue, Oct 12, 2004 at 09:57:15PM -0400, Brett Kirksey wrote:
> There are a few apps I have become very accustomed to using in OS X that 
> I would like to have in Linux.
> 
> Exposé gives you instant access to any open window with a single 
> keystroke. Display all open windows as thumbnails, view windows of the 
> current application, or hide all windows to quickly locate a file on 
> your desktop.

There are a couple of apps for Linux that do similar things. I don't
know if they're packaged in Ubuntu. There is "Kompose" for KDE,
"Expocity" for GNOME (it's a patch for Metacity) and there's skippy
which is a straight X app and doesn't depend on any desktop environment.

> 
> LaunchBar lets you hit a system wide hot key and then just start typing 
> the name of any app, document, url, song, etc. and it will bring up a 
> list of matching items and let you open the one you want.

Hitting ALT-F2 comes close. It will bring up a window you can type a
command into on both GNOME and KDE. I haven't used KDE in a long time,
but I know that the GNOME one will do auto-completion for you. I don't
recall if it will deal with arbitrary filenames but it will definitely
do programs.

> 
> Butler has similar functionality as LaunchBar, but I use it primarily 
> for its multiple pasteboards. I can cut or copy many items before I 
> decide to paste any of them. Then I just hit a system wide hotkey and 
> all of my pasteboards show in a pop-up menu for me to select the one I want.

I have recollections of KDE having this functionality. Unfortunately I
can't be more specific. Keep in mind that copy-and-paste works a little
differently on Linux (well, on X) than on other operating systems.

HTH,

James.

-- 
"Now, there are no problems  only opportunities. However, this seemed to be an
insurmountable opportunity."
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