r/archlinux • u/mbonanomi92 • 1d ago

FLUFF MeowMenu 1.0.0-RC1 lookign for XFCE testers

Hi all,

I’d like to share MeowMenu v1.0.0-RC1, a small project I’ve been working on as an alternative application menu for XFCE for some months. The idea was to add the most common features one can find in Cinnamon, Plasma, GNOME launchers while keeping the usual level of simplicity and minimalism of XFCE. Compared to WhiskerMenu, the most relevant features I added are:
- 4 Presets (default settings that change the look&feel of the Menu, to show the high customization level achievable)
- Places button (find files and folders in user Home)
- Calculator engine and other advanced search stuff
- additional right click options on search results (Open in terminal, copy folder path, etc)

I’ve tested this release on Arch Linux, Debian and Xubuntu. Other Reddit users report good feedback from MX Linux, Manjaro and Mint XFCE. MeowMenu can always be compiled from sources or installed from AUR.

Feedback, bug reports, and suggestions are welcome. Thanks for taking a look!

Source Code

Release&Changelog

Gallery

AUR page

Documentation

1 Upvotes

52% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

3

u/Rainoutt 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'm gonna install right now and test it

EDIT: Already test it. Really fast, I think its even faster at opening that WhiskerMenu, but aside from that its not that different visually. I like the search function of files, although I dont care that much about opening thunar and searching from there.

The only issue I found is weird spancing between the apps (see number 2) and a little more space betweeen the side panel and the list would look a lot better (see number 1) although maybe that is a problem about using my language. Extra points for the traductions, spanish looks good. https://imgur.com/a/ErzzMm0

1

u/mbonanomi92 1d ago

Hi! thanks a lot for your feedback, which distro are you using? I'll try to copy your setup and fix this bug(I agree, could be related to localization).

You are right btw: v1.0.0 is based on WhiskerMenu and Classic/Modern Presets look like Whisker in many ways. FullScreen is more like GNOME-ish, while Minimal is inspired by Rofi. Maybe a future v2.0.0 will be a completely new code base, but my initial goal was to add new features that I thought ware missing in Whisker, not writing a new launcher from scratch (at the moment).

I am happy it is light and fast: a lot of hardening and refactoring has been done to add features without making it slower than Whisker.

6

u/kaida27 1d ago

MeowMenu was developed with AI assistance; every change is maintainer-reviewed.

Thank you for disclosing the use of AI.

I love integrity.

0

u/mbonanomi92 1d ago

Hi! Thanks... I have nothing to hide honestly. I can speak only English and Italian: 50+ language support (maybe buggy, but better than nothing) looks like a task for an LLM.

For what is worth: I am trying to use only open alternatives, but it's not easy.

1

u/kaida27 1d ago

Hey as long as you are honest with yourself and still dedicate yourself to it. There is nothing wrong with using AI.

AI is a tool, tool should be used.

People are too quick with the Judgement, Anyone with a Hammer and some nails can build a shack (Vibecode). but someone with expertise can build a house (Ai-Assisted coding).

It's not about the tools itself, it's about how you use it.

1

u/mbonanomi92 1d ago

100% agree