The application has been recently launched

Dec 3, 2014 09:03 GMT  ·  By

The Spotlight feature on Mac OS X has drawn the Linux community’s attention and it looks that at least one developer has tried to replicate its functionality and feel. It works very well in Ubuntu, but the source is provided so it should work just as well in other distros.

Launchers that allow users to search through the system have been around for some time on Linux, so it's not exactly news that there is a new launcher out there that can do that. The difference with Mutate is that it provides an experience very similar to that of the Spotlight feature, already present in Mac OS X, although it's not as advanced, at least not yet.

You might think that you don't need yet another launcher for your system and that the one you’re currently using is just as good, but Mutate is really something else. The one thing making it different from the rest is the ability to create scripts for various tasks that can be then executed from the launcher. It already comes with a few very useful features, like Shutdown, search Github, or translate.

Mutate needs to grow

Once the user starts the application, it's easy to understand why it immediately feels useful and very well put together. It's fast and responsive, not to mention easy to use. Building the scripts takes a little to get use to and not everyone will want to do it, but it should provide a ton of possibilities for the user.

The application is made by a Chinese developer and that means that it has a number of features specific to that culture, like the default search, which is set to Baidu. All of these can be changed easily by accessing the application and looking for the Preferences. The first result is for Mutate and it's pretty straightforward.

Unfortunately, there are no options regarding the interface itself. For one, it doesn't match the size of the rest of the elements in the operating system, and the text (along with the search field) is way too big.

Also, there is no way to move the search field to any other place. In any case, this is an application that's been in the making for just a couple of months, so it will likely get some improvements along the way.

The guys at noobslab.com have been kind enough to put together a PPA with the application, for multiple Ubuntu versions, including 14.10. The developer also has an official PPA, but it only has support for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

Enter these commands in a terminal near you:

code
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:noobslab/apps
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mutate
You can also download the source packages for Mutate from Softpedia, if you have another operating system.

Photo Gallery (8 Images)

Mutate in action
Mutate search for preferencesShutdown in Mutate
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