6 of the Best Free Linux Application Launchers
Application launchers play an integral part in making the
Linux desktop a more productive environment to work and play. They
represent small utilities
which offers the desktop user a convenient access point for
application software and can make a real boost to users' efficiency.
An application launcher helps to reduce start up
times for applications by indexing shortcuts in the menu.
Furthermore, this type of software allows users
to search for documents and other files quicker by indexing
different file formats. This makes them useful for launching almost
anything on a computer including multimedia files, games, and the
internet. Application launchers often support plug-ins, adding to their
versatility.
Some people regard desktop search tools as application
launchers. We have not included any desktop search tools here, as our
favorite have already been covered in the 6
of the Best Free Linux Desktop Search Engines article.
GNOME Shell is billed as the defining technology of the GNOME
3 desktop user experience. It offers core interface functions like
switching to windows and launching applications. Essentially, GNOME
Shell could make application launchers largely unnecessary on the GNOME
desktop. However, it is not scheduled for a stable release until
September 2010. In any event, it is pretty certain that
application launchers will continue to play an important role for other
desktops.
To provide an insight into the quality of software that is
available, we have compiled a list of 6 high quality Linux application
launchers. Hopefully, there will be something of
interest for anyone who wants to improve their productivity.
Now, let's explore the 6 application launchers at hand. For
each title we have compiled its own portal page, providing a screenshot
of the software in action, a full description with an
in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant
resources and reviews.
| Application Launchers |
| GNOME
Do |
Specify actions to perform on search results |
| Kupfer |
Fast
and lightweight desktop summoner/launcher |
| Launchy |
Indexes shortcuts and files |
| Avant
Window Navigator |
MacOS
X like panel for GNOME |
| Katapult |
Quickly launch applications or open files |
| Bashrun |
X11
application launcher based on bash |
|
|
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Last Updated Sunday, July 03 2011 @ 10:40 AM EDT
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