But having different « app-menu » has no interest if it’s only esthetic and does not add features.
Who needs another app-menu and to some extend who ever needs an app-menu ? When you discover your new DE, yes, but once you get used to it, you “pin” your favorites ( in dock or panel or wherever you like ) or know their names to launch them ( by the many ways to launch an app ).
Actual Budgie App-menu is not bad but could be better, with :
⋅ a full browsing experience with arrows and tab keys ( today it’s not, you can’t « go » into categories nor switch from category to app list columns )
⋅ a recent category with a list of the recently used app’s,
⋅ besides the recent app’s used, also add categories for recent files AND places,
⋅ for the sake of discoverability, a list of recently installed app’s that would disappear once such app’s would have been launched at least once or twice,
⋅ and some choice in settings regarding all these, like size of the window, number of items listed, which category you want to appear or not, the default view…
( edit, as mentioned below ⋅ right click on icon for their actions list, if any )
Yes it’s a mix of dashboard + recent-frequent activities + menu-app, all in one place at one click reach, a mix between unity’s dash and xfce’s whisker menu.
Wish I knew how to do that, or at least « draw » some mockups.
Any chance of making the menu resizable, thanks!
Software app search is nice, so would file search.
And the applet does not have all settings original Budgie menu has, BTW
Upstream have a pull request open to convert the main view to a “flow box” - I think possibly that will then open the door to making the menu size configurable - but until then - not possible without lots of calculations and code changes
Cool applet … I like the possibility to switch between views.
Have you seen the UOS / Deepin 20 launcher ? You can grab the corner of the launcher with the mouse and change the size. You can also push the corner until it becomes full-screen and turns into a slingshot-like launcher. Really cool… I have tried the beta ISO available here.
Would that be an idea to enhance the functionality?
In theory it’s possible. But… To make things maintainable in the long-term, you would likely want a follow-up stream rather than getting into a complicated set of merges.
What’s cool and new about the Deepin launcher is that you can make it a full-screen launcher like the Gnome launcher or the Slingshot launcher … . I bet XFCE doesn’t have that
Yes very true. I guess I’ll wait for the PR to be merged, if it ever is, unless someone else comes up with a solution.
One idea is instead of resizable, use the Budgie Desktop Settings to be able to change the dimensions.
@ruwe Actually, it does!!! But it doesn’t have that slick blur, just transparency. Budgie 11 and XFCE will get that in the future when pushed to GTK4, though. It’s said to support blur
Thank you for doing this, I am sure it was a lot of work on your part for it to be even possible.
I will be testing this out in the near future because I think this is exactly what UB needs right now. This gives the budgie desktop that modern feel that it has everywhere else with the exception of the menu.
+1 on the possibility of resizing it. Hopefully that happens upstream
@codic , thanks for clarifying … I surely underestimated XFCE.
Regarding the applet, I believe a modern and sleek launcher is only one or two things I am missing in Budgie. It is a great distro and the Budgie team does a phenomenal job.
I used to be a distro hopper, but since my first installation of Budgie, I am a big fan.
. I bet XFCE doesn’t have that 