How do you launch your favorite programs?
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There are several options, and it's overwhelming.
- Pin to desktop
- Pin to panel
- Advanced MATE menu: Pin to favorites
- Brisk Menu: Pin to favorites
Which do you prefer? Any nice screenshots? I find the first two options a bit... messy.
What do you think?
It depends honestly. If it's something for day-to-day use, e.g. a browser or editor, I'll consider pinning to my panel or desktop. I also used to start Emacs with the Alt-F2 menu when I couldn't get the desktop entry working. If you want to get a bit technical you can also hook up a key map. Otherwise, I'll just use the panel menu lol.
I switched over from Trisquel to Triskel a few years ago. Within the KDE Plasma desktop environment you can very easily assign keyboard shortcuts to control/start applications (and about everything else). So, my most used applications I start them by pressing Meta (aka Super) + some custom defined character, e.g. Meta + M to start my Mail client or Meta + W for my Web browser or Meta + Z for Zotero. For my second priority apps I set up a "launcher panel" to the left side of my screen which hides automatically when not used, see screenshot. And apps I use rarely, I start them either with Alt + F2 or through the applications menu. There you have it ... my way of launching applications. ;)
Easy,
M-x [program]
;)
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I replaced marco, the default windows manager of MATE, with dwm (see https://ratfactor.com/dwm and https://ratfactor.com/dwm2). I use Mod1+p (this runs dmenu, I have set Mod1 to Super), then I start typing the program name and tab for autocompletion. Except for caja where for some reason, it does not work well. I don't bother using the mouse or creating special shortcuts, I have enough with dwm shortcuts (I use rather few, a bit like in the dwm2 page I linked above).
I guess this is a bit like Alt+F2 in MATE (but I don't know whether that has autocompletion or not).
I use Mod1+p (this runs dmenu, I have set Mod1 to Super), then I start typing the program name and tab for autocompletion.
In GNOME Shell, I type the Super key and what I am searching for: a program, a file, a contact, a setting, etc. GNOME Shell searches everywhere (not only at the starts of the name), including in tags (for instance, I see that typing "word" proposes LibreOffice Writer).
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In GNOME Shell, I type the Super key and what I am searching for
When I tried using GNOME Shell (by the way, if you can explain why the word "shell" is used here, I would be interested to know), I remember that I preferred to use Alt+F2 because, unlike Super, it doesn't hide the whole display to show the activity view, moving all windows around (painful for my eyes) and unlike Super+A, it doesn't recover the screen with application icons (less painful but stil unpleasant). I have a vague recollection that with Super or Super+A, "abrowser -P" did not work while it worked with Alt+F2, but my memory might not be reliable there.
why the word "shell" is used here
I believe the word shell is here to be understood as "a thin layer to interact with the core" (of the desktop environment in this case). The name collision with the command-line user interface (sh, bash, dash, zsh, etc.) is unfortunate.
I preferred to use Alt+F2 because, unlike Super, it doesn't hide the whole display to show the activity view, moving all windows around (painful for my eyes)
The animations can be disabled. There are different ways to do so: using "Reduce Animation" in the "Seeing" category of the "Accessibility" tab of the settings, with the dconf editor, or executing the following command:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface enable-animations false
I have a vague recollection that with Super or Super+A, "abrowser -P" did not work while it worked with Alt+F2
Alt+F2 indeed allows to execute any command you would execute in a terminal. In contrast, the GNOME Shell searches among the application launchers (and the contacts, and the files, etc.: in the settings, you can choose what is searched and it what order the results are listed).
Nevertheless, you can add launchers (typically with "Main Menu", provided by the gnome-menus package) for every 'abrowser -P profile' command. One per "profile". Then, you would be able to launch the profile of your choice from GNOME Shell.
I also use DWM and Dmenu, and so I find any other method of program launching to be frankly barbaric.
I also use dmenu (within i3wm) triggered by a keyboard shortcut, but I rarely turn my computer off, and the programs I use most often (which I wouldn't necessarily call my "favorites") are usually always open. I also set custom keyboard shortcuts for web browsers I use daily.
Mate supports custom keyboard shortcuts as does KDE.
I typically use the net install and DWM so either rofi or a keyboard shortcut.