Sabkush Headlines: GNOME Do Launcher Starts Apps on the Right Foot

Sabkush Headlines: GNOME Do Launcher Starts Apps on the Right FootGNOME Do Launcher Starts Apps on the Right Foot





I have a problem with Linux! It has too many cool ways to navigate the desktop and launch programs. I fell in love with the really awesome GNOME Do recently and started a feud with my other computing personas. One relishes the panel, and another is enamored with the desktop draped in icons of my always-used programs. The desktop icons fetish is a carry over from my earlier Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows daze. Its easy to set up in Ubuntu Linux and similar distros with a right-click from the applications menu. Launching apps from desktop icons is hard-wired into Puppy Linux. The launch panel infatuation comes from my first exposure to the Linux OS. I use four or more workspaces (virtual desktops) to segregate related project apps onto the same screen. Desktop icons are quick and available for launching an app in a virgin workspace. Clicking an icon in the panel eliminates having to find the desktop when open windows hide its icons. My launch-lovers quarrel is far from over. Until now the desktop icons and the panel icons complemented each other. But the GNOME Do interface is radically different. It needs no shared usefulness with my other two launcher heartthrobs. Even worse, GNOME Do comes with a BFF (Best Friends Forever) option called "Docky." Together, they bring an entirely new look and feel to living in Linux. Putting Do in GNOME GNOME Do is an app launcher, program switcher and file-searching tool wrapped into one really cool interface. Depending on what options you select, it can do even more. For instance, you can right-click to run, play, chat, etc. Use Do (the apps nickname by admirers) to quickly run applications, find Evolution contacts and Firefox bookmarks, locate files, artists and albums in Rhythmbox or IM buddies in Pidgin. You also can open a new email window for a name entered from your address book. Do not let its name fool you. If you run other desktop environments like KDE, you can still use GNOME Do. This baby is a kin to the Mac OS Xs Quicksilver and the GNOME Launch box. GNOME Do is plug-in-based. It comes preset with a handful of plug-in helpers already engaged. Scrolling through the Plug-in tab under the Preferences option presents a hefty list of more cool stuff. Do Basics GNOME Dos basic interface opens a small window in the center of the screen over whatever program is already there. To bring up this search window, just click the GNOME Do icon in the notification area on the desktop. Another option is to press the Super or Windows key and the space bar simultaneously. Type a letter to bring up an alphabetized menu of corresponding apps and related search items. Or type the first few letters of an app you want to run. The results appear in a window under GNOME Dos splash screen. Scroll through the listing with the arrow keys and press the Enter key to launch your desired app or open the listed file in its associated program. Using Do is quick and simple. Theme Choices Do comes with several appearance settings that blend in nicely with the various Linux desktop themes. Choose from Classic, Mini, Glassy or Nouveau. At one point in GNOME Dos growth, its developers mated the interface with what is also a stand-alone launch app called "Docky." This is now another theme choice in Do. If you run the Docky option, you can place the docking bar at the top or the bottom of your screen. You can hide it or not as well as scale its size and animations. With and Without Using the Docky theme adds a much different atmosphere than the other themes. It gives the interface a much more functional look and feel. In fact, you can install the stand-alone version of Docky from here and bypass the features found in GNOME Do. But you get so much more usefulness from the combination. So it does not make much sense to choose one over the other. Perhaps that was the rationale GNOME Dos developers had in mind when they merged the two separate apps. Mac-Like Docking That is what the Docky component brings to GNOME Do and the Linux desktop. It is pretty nifty. Other Linux apps attempt the recreate the functionality of the Mac OS X dock bar. Even Microsoft Windows 7 tried to put more Mac-like pizazz in its latest rendition of the Windows program bar. But none of these efforts pulls it off as nicely as Docky does. It provides configurable dock space. As you traverse the pointer over the icons on the bar, the icons raise or magnify above the bar.