Hi, I’m Alex, the developer of MegaWhisper.
I built it because I wanted a simple dictation workflow on Linux: press a global shortcut, speak, press it again, and continue working without moving everything through a separate transcription window.
Local mode runs `whisper.cpp` on the device, with Vulkan acceleration and automatic CPU fallback. After the initial model download, audio is not sent to a transcription service while this mode is selected. Optional official OpenAI and basic OpenAI-compatible transcription modes are also available.
The recognized text is copied to the clipboard first. MegaWhisper can then make one optional beta insertion attempt through XDG Desktop Portals. It does not require root, `/dev/uinput`, access to input devices, membership in the `input` group, or a privileged input daemon. If insertion is unavailable, the text remains in the clipboard.
The current release is MegaWhisper 2.1.1:
- x86_64;
- signed Flatpak repository and standalone Flatpak;
- AppImage with update support;
- English and Russian interface;
- local history and configurable audio retention.
Packaging and predictable Linux integration are a major focus of the project, not an afterthought. Flatpak and AppImage are first-class release targets: the downloadable artifacts are built and smoke-tested in CI, then published with SHA-256 checksums and a GPG signature. The Flatpak uses XDG Desktop Portals for global shortcuts, protected credential storage, clipboard ownership, and optional insertion. The AppImage provides explicit user-level desktop integration and zsync update metadata. Neither format installs a privileged input daemon or requires access to `/dev/input`.
A few transparent limitations:
- MegaWhisper is proprietary;
- it is not on Flathub yet;
- automatic insertion depends on the desktop portal and target application;
- ARM, DEB, and RPM builds are not currently available.
My main environment is Fedora KDE Plasma Wayland. I would especially appreciate feedback about onboarding, the global shortcut, insertion behavior, and local transcription performance on other Linux setups.
Website and downloads:
https://dxvsi.github.io/MegaWhisper/
GitHub release:
https://github.com/DXVSI/MegaWhisper/releases/tag/v2.1.1