Pomelo
English
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Download 0.32
All features

Everything you need,
already inside

Menu bar, Dock, input method, settings, everyday apps, a PDF reader and an AI assistant… It all works out of the box — no hunting for software, no setting things up one by one.

Download Pomelo Keyboard shortcuts
Launcher: all of Pomelo's apps
Desktop

A familiar way to work

Menu bar at the top, Dock at the bottom. Press Super+Space to search and Super+A to see all apps.

  • Menu bar: the current app, input method, network, volume, battery, clock and Control Center
  • Pomelo menu: edit it yourself — add apps, websites or commands
  • Dock: pin your favorite apps; Ctrl/Shift+click opens another window
  • Launcher: every app at a glance; right-click to rename or change icons and categories
  • Search: find apps, files and commands, do math — and ask Pomi if nothing turns up
  • Control Center: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, dark mode, Do Not Disturb and volume
  • Windows: snap to left or right half, overview of all windows, buttons on the left or right
  • Appearance: dark mode, accent color, text size and wallpaper
The Pomelo menu in the top-left corner
Control Center
Appearance: dark mode, accent color, text size and window button position
Built-in Pomelo Zhuyin

Type Chinese right after installing

The Chewing engine plus Pomelo's own candidate window. No fcitx or ibus needed — just 5 extra packages, about 4 MB.

  • Tap Shift or press Ctrl+Space to switch between Chinese and English
  • Shift+Space toggles full-width / half-width
  • Space or ↓ opens the candidates; 1–9 picks one
  • Standard, Hsu, Eten, pinyin and other Zhuyin keyboard layouts
  • Works in Firefox, Chrome, VS Code and LibreOffice
  • The candidate window follows dark mode and the accent color
After typing Zhuyin, press ↓ for candidates

Extra disk space needed

Pomelo Zhuyinpomelo-input
about 4 MB
fcitx5 + Chewingwithout recommended packages
about 37 MB
ibus + Chewingpulls in GTK and Python
about 235 MB
Show data table
OptionExtra packagesExtra disk spaceResident memory
Pomelo Zhuyin5about 4 MBabout 6 MB
fcitx5 + Chewing49about 37 MBabout 30 MB
ibus + Chewing79about 235 MBabout 28 MB
Measured on a clean Pomelo system — see the input method design notes.
AI assistant

Pomi, the AI assistant that walks

An AI that runs on your own computer. Common requests are done in under 0.1 seconds; everything else goes to the model, about 1–5 seconds on a typical computer.

  • Open apps, websites and files: "Open the quote in my Documents"
  • Close, switch and minimize windows: "Close the browser"
  • Change settings: "Set the volume to 30", "Turn on dark mode"
  • Reminders and questions: "Remind me to take a break in 10 minutes", "Weather in Taipei"
  • File actions — create, copy, move, trash — always ask you first
  • Append to text files: "Add 'buy milk' to the end of todo.txt"
  • Six color themes, and it can read answers aloud (offline voices)
  • Control music: "Next song", "Pause"

Meet Pomi

Pomi: "What day is it?" answered instantly; when it finds two quotes, it lists them so you can choose
Apps

Apps you use every day

Double-click a text file, photo, song, video or PDF in the file manager and it opens in the right app.

Text editor

Text editor

  • Menu bar, multiple tabs, file tree on the left
  • Find and replace: highlights every match, shows "3 of 10"
  • Line numbers, word wrap, monospace font, auto-indent
  • Old Big5 files are converted automatically and saved back as Big5; CRLF line endings are kept
  • Reloads automatically when another program changes the file
Calculator

Calculator

  • Basic and scientific modes (trigonometry, logarithms, factorials, π, e)
  • Type the whole expression on your keyboard and see the result as you type
  • 200+10% gives 220; 0.1+0.2 correctly shows 0.3
  • History — click an entry to reuse it
  • The calculator key on your keyboard opens it directly
Image viewer

Image viewer

  • PNG, JPEG, GIF and animated WebP, BMP
  • Portrait phone photos are rotated automatically (EXIF)
  • ←/→ browses the same folder; the next image is prepared in the background
  • Slideshow, full screen, photo info (aperture, shutter, ISO)
  • Opens photos over 50 megapixels; one-click install adds HEIC and AVIF support
Media player

Media player

  • Plays MP3, FLAC, Ogg, Opus and WAV out of the box
  • Playlists, shuffle, repeat, album art
  • Subtitles: .srt files or embedded in MKV/MP4 — Big5 too
  • Big5 song titles in old MP3s are converted to proper Chinese
  • Music library: browse by song, artist or album; media keys work too

Screenshots & recording

Super+Shift+3 for the whole screen, 4 for a selection, 5 for the toolbar; add Ctrl to copy to the clipboard only. Recordings are saved as MP4.

File manager

Copy, cut, paste, rename and search; USB drives mount automatically, and right-click "New document" lets you start writing right away.

Terminal

Tabs (Ctrl+Shift+T), Super+1–9 to jump to a tab, Super+Return to summon it any time.

Software Center

Recommended apps by category, plus search across the whole repository; uses apt on Ubuntu and dnf on Fedora/Rocky automatically.

Activity Monitor

See which programs are using CPU and memory, and end them if needed.

Storage

Disk usage and drive health; one-click cleanup of the Trash, thumbnail cache, package cache and unneeded packages.

PDF reader

View, annotate, sign and edit text —
all in one app

Pomelo's PDF engine is its own — no off-the-shelf PDF library.

  • Chinese government documents (PMingLiU, DFKai-SB), vertical text, Big5
  • RC4, AES-128 and AES-256 encryption; damaged files are repaired automatically
  • Highlighter, sticky notes, pen, rectangles, arrows
  • Handwritten signatures, or a photo of your signature (background removed automatically)
  • Digital signatures: signing and verification
  • Organize pages, merge files, add page numbers
  • Edit the original text on the page
  • Remove watermarks in one go

All PDF reader features

Filling in and signing in the PDF reader
Settings

No terminal needed —
just click to set things up

  • Network: DHCP/manual IP, DNS, IPv6; reverts automatically after 30 seconds if something goes wrong
  • Displays: resolution, rotation, multiple monitors; reverts after 15 seconds unless you click "Keep"
  • Bluetooth, sound and power
  • Camera: preview, brightness and contrast, or disable it entirely
  • Keyboard, mouse and touchpad
  • Screen time and notifications
  • Users and groups, printers and scanners
  • Software updates, date and time, device manager
  • App menu: edit what the launcher and search show
  • Login screen: background, clock, automatic login, and a message at the bottom

Settings that need administrator rights pop up Pomelo's own password dialog.

Settings
Login & security

Even the login screen and password storage are our own

Pomelo login screen

Pomelo login screen (optional)

Replaces GDM and LightDM. The login manager uses only about 2 MB of resident memory and relies only on libc and PAM — no GLib, no D-Bus. Try it first with sudo pomelo-dm-switch try and switch once you're happy.

Keyring

Stores passwords for Chrome and VS Code, replacing gnome-keyring. The whole file is encrypted (AES-256-GCM) — even website addresses are hidden — and it unlocks automatically when you log in.

Screen lock and password dialog

Super+L locks the screen; when administrator rights are needed, Pomelo's own password dialog appears — no GNOME required.

Multilingual

14 interface languages

繁體中文、English、简体中文、日本語、한국어、Français、Deutsch、Español、Italiano、Português (Brasil)、Русский、Tiếng Việt、ไทย、Bahasa Indonesia

Switch in "Language & Input"; it takes effect after you log in again, and missing language packs are installed automatically. Simplified Chinese was converted from Traditional and reviewed by hand; the other languages are AI translations — please report any odd wording.

Especially thoughtful for Chinese users

  • Old Big5 text files, subtitles and MP3 titles are converted to proper Chinese automatically
  • PDF documents without embedded fonts are shown with the system's Ming and Kai typefaces
  • Vertical PDF text and ROC calendar years are no problem
  • Pomi understands Chinese numerals like "volume to thirty" (音量調到三十)
Keyboard shortcuts

Common shortcuts

Super is the Windows key on your keyboard.

Search SuperSpace
Launcher (all apps) SuperA
Overview of all windows SuperTab
Switch windows AltTab
Terminal SuperReturn
Close window SuperQ
Minimize SuperM
Maximize Super↑
Snap to left half Super←
Snap to right half Super→
Full screen SuperCtrlF
Lock the screen SuperL
Call Pomi SuperShiftSpace
Capture the whole screen SuperShift3
Capture a selection SuperShift4
Screenshot & recording toolbar SuperShift5
Tap: switch Chinese / English Shift
Full-width / half-width ShiftSpace
Restart Pomelo SuperShiftR
Log out SuperShiftQ
Being honest

What it can't do yet

Pomelo is still at 0.x. These are the known limitations.

  • X11 only — Wayland is not supported.
  • No window shadows or animations — you can add them by installing picom.
  • The file manager doesn't support drag and drop yet.
  • System tray supports only classic XEmbed; icons from apps that only use AppIndicator won't appear.
  • The terminal doesn't support color emoji.
  • Zhuyin input: Qt apps (VLC, VirtualBox) can't receive Chinese input — use Fcitx 5 for those.
  • The image viewer doesn't support TIFF or SVG yet.
  • PDF: form fields can't be filled in yet; text is edited line by line without automatic rewrapping.
  • PDF digital signatures: certificates on smart-card readers (e.g. Taiwan's Citizen Digital Certificate) aren't supported yet, and no timestamps are added.
  • The Pomelo login screen is still in trial — please try it with try first.