Lately, I found out that Application Launcher also features all the functionality I use from KRunner.

In my particular experience, Application Launcher is snappier at first launch and also returns results rather quickly. For me, this begs an obvious question.

What’s the use case for using KRunner over the Application Launcher?

So far I’ve noticed that pressing Enter on the Calculator results makes the entry be copied on KRunner, but this does not happen for the Application Launcher. I’m certain there must be something else to it, otherwise people would not be using it (even I found myself using it from time to time, but could not understand why).

  • @OpossumOnKeyboard
    2•6 months ago

    Think it’s mainly just preference. I prefer krunner since it feels closer to raycast when I was on Mac, then when I switched to Linux as my daily driver, runner just felt natural. (Tried out Alfred for a bit but krunner did everything I personally needed)

  • Strit
    2•6 months ago

    For me, KRunner has some quick actions for certain applications that I use a lot. Like a quick connect to a VPN service.

    • BrickardoOP
      2•6 months ago

      Isn’t that runner picked up by the KDE Application launcher as well?

      • Strit
        1•6 months ago

        I’m not sure. It’s a krunner specific plugin. If it is, I just haven’t noticed.

  • 56!
    2•6 months ago

    Krunner is better at displaying longer search results. The launcher truncates anything longer than 1 line. Dictionary definitions are an example.

    Krunner also keeps what was last typed in, which is very useful if I’m adding up a bunch of numbers, or if I need to switch to a different application before using the result.

    • BrickardoOP
      1•6 months ago

      Yup, that’s more like it. I hadn’t realized about the first paragraph.

  • Ephera
    1•6 months ago

    Clearly, KRunner exists so that if Plasma crashes, I can run plasmashell --replace in there. 🙃

    Alright, a somewhat more serious response: It gives people flexibility in how they can use their system. For example, the Application Launcher requires having widget for it on your panel. It requires having a panel.

    Personally, I also just like KRunner, because it doesn’t take me out of my workflow so much. The Application Launcher feels like I’m now doing the separate task of launching an application, with how it slaps that flyout into your face, covering your windows underneath. KRunner on the other hand feels like I’m merely adding another window.

    In general, though, you might not find massively convincing reasons to have it, because why not? They use the same backend code. The tiny bit of UI to display KRunner, that doesn’t cause much maintenance. Even if it did cause much maintenance, it’s not like the volunteers working on that are going to work on something else instead.

  • RachelRodent
    1•6 months ago

    When I first switched to kde 6. Krunner had to replace andromeda launcher for me cause it wasn’t updated. now though? Krunner is just ingrained to my muscle memory and workflow I can’t turn back to a launcher