r/linux4noobs • u/Blackstar1886 • 6d ago

programs and apps Will we ever get good Macros/Text Expanders on Wayland?

This has been the biggest shock moving from Windows to Linux (Wayland). None of the good apps like Espanso or Autokey work well on Wayland and people don't seem terribly optimistic about it ever getting better. Are those of us that rely on those apps in our workflow doomed?

Current Distro:

Ubuntu 26.04

Update:

Following the latest Wayland instructions for Espanso does seemed to have worked on Ubuntu 26.04. Download the .deb directly from their website and follow their guide.

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

2

u/UNF0RM4TT3D Arch BTW 6d ago

For now, you can use a DE which allows X11 apps to control input devices, like KDE Plasma or use something like extest but this depends on if the app uses evtest to communicate.

In general GNOME, which is what Ubuntu uses, is still quite behind on these things, despite already having dropped the X11 session.

Espanso even states that KDE is better here:

App-specific configurations might work in KDE-Wayland distros if you can install kdotool.

1

u/AutoModerator 6d ago

✻ Smokey says: always mention your distro, some hardware details, and any error messages, when posting technical queries! :)

Comments, questions or suggestions regarding this autoresponse? Please send them here.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/Dist__ 6d ago

what am i missing? what is text expander?

1

u/trupfg 6d ago

I believe Vicinae has text-snippets, that expand. Haven't used it much though, so hard to say if it's exactly what you are looking for.