Proposal: Change name, start a new community

[NickSeagull]

Are you submitting a bug report?

No 🙂

Proposal

What do you think about making the fork explicit?

I have tried to contribute to the main Wox repo in the past, but due to the non-responsiveness of the main contributors, this was completely impossible.

I envision Wox as one of the perfect automation tools for Windows, but I think that the main repo is staying behind expectations. It would be great to have a simple path for everyone to contribute. Here are some ideas.

I'd be very happy to actively contribute to the project with them.

Change the name

This might sound very hard, but I think it would be necessary if we wanted to change the community culture. If we didn't do this, newcomers would get very confused with the two repos and their differences.

Adopt Spectrum as the questions platform

The main Wox repo issues board is filled with questions, and I'm sure that with that state, it is absolutely impossible to prioritize bugs/features.

Many well-known projects use it, like Zeit, and it has proven to work great.

Start a new website with updated docs

This website would be autogenerated with a CI/CD process, making possible for everyone to contribute to the docs. Docusaurus is widely used, and it would work very well.

Also, it'd be great to work on stuff like logo/branding. An example of this is the Espanso tool, which is very simple, but has great branding. Making the tool much more attractive.

Conclusion

It'd be great to give Wox an overhaul, and this fork is the perfect opportunity.

Again, this is a lot of work, and I offer myself to work on this 😁

[jjw24]

@NickSeagull thanks for putting this forward. This is definitely an interesting proposal. I am not saying we should or shouldn't, but I do want to gauge what every else's thoughts are in terms of the direction of this Fork's Wox.

Obviously the above proposal involves a fair bit of work, and if we were to go with it, I would want to seek more contributors and maintainers to help.

Any how, no right or wrong answers, vote on it, leave your comments and what not, this is a good place to have the conversation.

[NickSeagull]

Another useful thing https://openopensource.org/ , this is being adopted by more and more projects, so it might be a fit

[jjw24]

One of the reasons for the popularity of Wox is its plugin community which received contributions that extended the user experience and it's own application usability.

For the rebrand we would also need to consider how we could continue this, whether we can still go through the original platform or create a new one.

[NickSeagull]

Definitely, I'd take Alfred as the main example and would copy what they did.

To share workflows (plugins) they do so in two ways:

• Alfred forums - where they have a "Share your workflow" category. We can look for forum solutions like Discourse for this.
• Packal - which is what Wox has as the plugin marketplace with wpm. We could copy that and implement it similarly.

But whatever we do, I think it is important that we maintain it open and allow anyone to contribute and improve the infrastructure.

[JustACuteGirlLookingForAManToFixHerBugs]

One of the reasons for the popularity of Wox is its plugin community which received contributions that extended the user experience and it's own application usability.
For the rebrand we would also need to consider how we could continue this, whether we can still go through the original platform or create a new one.

From a perspective of a common user, right now plugins are a mess.

1. There's no way to sort them.
2. It's completely unclear how these are moderated. Which ones are trustworthy? What potential harm could be done through a malicious plugin? Which ones work at all?

[JustACuteGirlLookingForAManToFixHerBugs]

What do you think about making the fork explicit?

I wholeheartedly support this. Right now it's very confusing - I often end up accidentally opening the original repo (😎adopting the cool lingo). I'm pretty sure some people search for Wox - only to discover that it's not maintained anymore. I found this ticket due to sheer luck.

Some form of rebranding to freshen up the program & differentiate the two is a good idea as well.

Obviously the above proposal involves a fair bit of work, and if we were to go with it, I would want to seek more contributors and maintainers to help.

Would be great if someone could outline what needs to be done, item by item, so people like me know where help is needed, esp outside of coding.

[kalaschnik]

Maybe this has been left unnoticed, Microsoft is rapidly working on an open-source collection of various tools: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys

They also created a proposal for a future launcher:
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/wiki/Launcher

Which also indicates the collaboration with Wox:

Maybe it is a good time to reach out to them. They already integrated other GitHub Projects, and their community base is huge. What do you think @jjw24 ?

EDIT: I just saw in their issues that a connection is already established :) Good!

[NickSeagull]

Wow, this is so cool, thanks @kalaschnik . I'd love to have Wox integrated into PowerToys, as I'm user of both :)

[kalaschnik]

Same :) — And they actively working on it. It seems that in the next version (0.17) they plan to integrate Wox: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys#march-2020-update

@jjw24 , what does this collaboration mean for Wox (or whatever the name will be)?

[jjw24]

Maybe it is a good time to reach out to them. They already integrated other GitHub Projects, and their community base is huge. What do you think @jjw24 ?

EDIT: I just saw in their issues that a connection is already established :) Good!

Hi @kalaschnik hope you are well. That is correct, they have began integrating this fork's Wox into the PowerToys code base, and helped upgrade the fork's code base from .Net Framework to Core.

[kalaschnik]

Sounds good. So, does this mean PowerToys updates will pull from this fork in future? That would be great actually.

[jjw24]

@jjw24 , what does this collaboration mean for Wox (or whatever the name will be)?

Sounds good. So, does this mean PowerToys updates will pull from this fork in future? That would be great actually.

This is then interesting in terms of the rebrand.

My understanding from the conversation with Microsoft is that Wox will live inside PowerToys' main repository and be bundled together with other PowerToys, this will help it get iterated over faster. Once the integration is stabilised they will look to migrate the top community plugins to Core which will then be able to be downloaded into the launcher.

The concern I can think of so far is where some users may want to download a standalone launcher as oppose to PowerToys which packs many other utilities. Microsoft has indicated that in the future they may migrate the launcher to its own repo though.

As far as I understand, and I could be wrong, but it looks like they will soon finish merging/integrating this fork into PowerToys and begin iterating over it. It also looks like they have begun rebranding Wox to PowerToys.Launcher/Microsoft.Launcher.

In terms of PowerToys updates, I don't think will pull from this fork, they may still cherry pick new changes from here at the moment but once the launcher in PowerToys is stabilised, (and this is my own belief) PowerToys' launcher will run its own course.

Coming back to the rebrand topic, in terms of direction, do we want to:

1. Rebrand to Powertoys' launcher, which I think basically is deprecating this fork and just contributing over at Powertoys, or
2. Rebrand to a new launcher, continuing the proposal from @NickSeagull, new home, new name and expand the community, or
3. Keep the fork as it is, or
4. Transfer the fork to a new organisation so it is more visible, see if there is any uptake on development, interest and then decide where to from there.

What do you guys think?

[NickSeagull]

I've created a poll so everyone can vote (just click on the option) :

[NickSeagull]

Also, I'd first create an issue at the powertoys repo to ask them about their opinions too

[kalaschnik]

I guess when they have people working on it (for actual money) they will develop at a higher pace, won’t they? That would speak for Option 1. However, it would be sad if there would be no independent repo in the future for Wox. :/

[theClueless]

@jjw24 The first option seems like the best direction to me.

1. Rebrand to Powertoys' launcher, which I think basically is deprecating this fork and just contributing over at Powertoys, or

It could open the project to more mainstream usage and hopefully leverage this to update a lot of Wox (I really think the UI needs a rebuilding as it is really messy today).
It also give an automatic re-brand :)
I think talking to MS and trying to help with the migration into powertoys could help in the long run and pushing for a separate repo for the launcher should be our goal.
But it could be slower and harder to push new changes to it 👎 also from what you wrote I wasn't sure what would be the launcher way to discover and install plugins if it is only MS approved that seems like a very bad direction to me.

[JustACuteGirlLookingForAManToFixHerBugs]

Integration as in "it works together nicely" is good.

But getting engulfed and assimilated into the PowerToys project is not ❌

Wox is open, modular, a bit hacky at times, but it's what users are drawn to. Otherwise they'd use one of the other less open alternatives.

Losing independence might very well do more harm than good.

[jjw24]

Glad most people are keen to see this fork rebranded. I am most excited as well to proceed with it.

How does 'Flow Launcher' for a new name sound? Emphasis on making your work flow, seamless integration of different plugins (in the future plugins written in different lanuages) and smooth experience like the water flow.

[NickSeagull]

Love the name @jjw24 !

[jjw24]

Love the name @jjw24 !

Awesome. Could I extend an invitation to you @NickSeagull to be one of the maintainers of the repo as we make the rebrand happen?

To everyone else if you are also interested in being a maintainer/contributor feel free to let me know here in this issue or email me directly.

[kalaschnik]

I’d like to join this journey, although I cannot contribute to core C# related things. Yet, I would be glad to contribute in polish-up everything related to Python plugin development 🚀

[SysC0mp]

I would also like to help you as much as i can 🔥 The new name sounds awesome, too.

[jjw24]

I’d like to join this journey, although I cannot contribute to core C# related things. Yet, I would be glad to contribute in polish-up everything related to Python plugin development 🚀

Well this is exactly what this new project needs as well @kalaschnik , this fork has had many questions around how to integrate with Python plugins that I have not had the chance to look into. Python integration, and in the future other languages, need to be working seamlessly. If we can focus on at minimum allow Flow Launcher to integrate Python plugins as easily as C# plugins without having devs pulling out their hair then it would be a great start.

Not to mention how powerful the language is, we can definitely do good in that space.

So @kalaschnik you on board to give it some Pythonic love?

[jjw24]

In terms of repo set up, would we set it up under an organisation, so that maintainers can also create repos related to website, tooling and whatnot?

Would this be the best way? @NickSeagull @kalaschnik @SysC0mp

[jjw24]

To everyone else if you are also interested in being a maintainer/contributor feel free to let me know here in this issue or email me directly.

Just to clarify here also, no one is expected to pull large work items, you chip in when you can, where you can, and how ever much passion you have on it. We will build it up iteratively.

Don't be afraid if you are not writing perfect code, we will run off a 1 peer review before merge system so somebody can help you with the gotchas and at least one person knows what's going into the code base.

[kalaschnik]

So @kalaschnik you on board to give it some Pythonic love?

Making a Wox Plugin was on my to-do list for some time actually, and it would be a great opportunity to finally start diving into it. I also have a good use case for a plugin, which is really low in complexity and would be a good candidate to document the steps I perform as sort of a basic tutorial.

In terms of repo set up, would we set it up under an organisation

Think that’s the best way to do it

[NickSeagull]

Yep, I think that create an organization for it is the best thing

[SysC0mp]

I also agree with that. 👍 A new organization would give the whole project and all repos that belong to it in the future an ordered structure.

[Stanzilla]

I would actually prefer if everyone could start contributing to the PowerToys version instead. This would also allow accelerating the process of having it as a standalone version again, while keeping feature parity with the included version.

[jjw24]

A look at the new launcher in progress:

[NickSeagull]

I know that this goes against this issue, but the author of Wox stated that he was open to adding more members to the organization and opening up more the org.

I started an issue to discuss more this matter here, in the Wox repo would love to hear your opinions over there :)

[jjw24]

Update to get Flow Launcher 1.6.0

You may get a notice that your external Wox plugin can not be loaded in Flow. If this is the case, delete that plugin from your user data directory and then from Flow, search pm install + your plugin name. If it is not on the list, feel free to request a port here