Analysis updated 2026-06-24
Replace dmenu with rofi as the app launcher in a tiling window manager like i3 or sway.
Bind a key to switch between open windows by typing a few letters.
Build a power menu script with shutdown, reboot, and lock options served through rofi.
Quickly SSH into a host by name picked from your ~/.ssh/config.
| davatorium/rofi | flipperdevices/flipperzero-firmware | shadowsocks/shadowsocks-libev | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stars | 16,064 | 15,980 | 16,159 |
| Language | C | C | C |
| Setup difficulty | easy | hard | moderate |
| Complexity | 3/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 |
| Audience | ops devops | developer | ops devops |
Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.
Install via the system package manager, full theming and scripting take longer to learn.
Rofi is a keyboard-driven popup menu tool for Linux that serves three main purposes: switching between open windows, launching applications, and acting as a replacement for dmenu (a lightweight command-line menu program). Instead of clicking through a taskbar or application grid with your mouse, you press a keyboard shortcut and a searchable list appears, you type a few letters to filter the options and press Enter to launch or switch. The built-in modes cover common use cases: run mode launches programs from the command line, drun mode launches apps based on desktop shortcut files, window mode switches between open windows, ssh mode lets you connect to remote servers by name, file-browser lets you open files, and combi mode merges multiple lists into one. All of these can appear in a single popup with flexible, fuzzy search filtering, meaning you can type words in any order and it will still find what you're looking for. Rofi is aimed at Linux power users, particularly those running minimal or tiling window managers (setups where windows are arranged automatically, often without a traditional taskbar). It is highly themeable, supports international keyboards and right-to-left text, and can be extended with custom scripts or plugins. It is written in C and is known to work on Linux and BSD systems.
A keyboard-driven popup launcher and window switcher for Linux and BSD, with fuzzy search, themes, and a scriptable dmenu replacement mode.
Mainly C. The stack also includes C, Xorg, Wayland.
Free to use, modify, and redistribute under the MIT license, keeping the copyright notice.
Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.
Mainly ops devops.
This repo across BitVibe Labs
Verify against the repo before relying on details.