Application Launchers

[santin]

Well, I'm currently using Launchbar as my main app launcher. I really love to launch my apps by just typing a few letters...

Anyone sharing an opinion on app launchers?

[Phil St. Romain]

Point and click man here, so I use the Dock, and I've also set up the Snard Dockling to serve as an apple menu type launcher.

Drop Drawers has a nice Launcher option, which I use to open a number of Classic apps.

[Brad Nelson]

Does double clicking in the Finder count? ;) I think I've tried them all and have settled on FruitMenu. With the Contextual Menu extension you can add items directly to its menu with just a click (or several if you're a neet freak like me and organize things into subfolders.) All the launchers mentioned so far are good ones that I've used and it's often just a matter of preference. But FruitMenu is so convenient because everything is just a click away in the Apple menu and that click is in the top left of the screen which just "makes sense" from a navigation and proximity standpoint. Oh yeah, and the ability to attach command keys to any item in the menu is fantastic.

[Crusty]

I've been using DragThing for quite a while now and love it. I've tried a few other launchers, but always come back to DragThing. It's easy to use and blends in well with OS X.

[level9]

DragThing beats'em all, hands down.

[WillyT]

The dock launches the stuff I use constantly. ASM works well for me also.

But for XWindows HEY I'm tired of the terminal. I have used an Amiga for 17 years and yes it has a CLI but EVERYTHING can be set to launch with icons.

The Finder doesn't work well with terminal apps. Scripts complete and leave the terminal just sitting there. But stuff I use all the time can be put in the Gnome-panel menus. I just can't live without Pysol solitare.:cool:

[lidar_researcher]

DragThing is nice, but check out Launch Items X 1.0.2. A right click (or command click) in the finder will bring-up a configurable menu of containing a list of apps to launch or folders to open. Similar to some X-window managers which, on receiving a right click, bring up a contextual menu for launching Apps and such.

lidar

[Crusty]

Does Launch Items X create that menu anytime you right click or command-click? If so, that would annoy me since I use right-click quite often and I don't want to wait for some huge menu. If it doesn't, then it would be worth looking at.

[lidar_researcher]

Whenever you right click (or command click) in the finder, the usual menu that we're all familiar with will come-up, along with an addition menu item.: Launch Items. Specifically, with Launch Items installed, the a right click in the finder will bring up the following....

Help
New Folder
Show Info

Launch Items ->

Only when you *select* the Launch Items title does the app listing present itself. Hence, if you never select it, you'll never see the app listing. If you think you'd like it you can find it via a quick search at VersionTracker.

HTH

lidar

[Crusty]

I checked out Launch Items X and it's a nice launcher, but won't work for me. I have over 100 apps stored and organized in my DragThing dock, so if I were to add all those to Launch Items X I'd have a contextual menu a mile long.

If you've got 30 or fewer apps to store, then I can see how LIX would be a good choice. I'll stick with DragThing though.

[stevetech]

I just "rediscovered" DragThing. I used it when I was running OS 9. Once I moved to OS X I figured I would just use the DOCK in place of DragThing. I just downloaded and set up DragThing under OS X. Now I know what I was missing. I was able to clean up my dock and my desktop. I love the transparency in DragThing too. Check it out if you haven't already...

-Steve

[level9]

A couple other features I like in DragThing are: it's app switcher, and the ability to assign key commands to open items in it's docks and layers, including Applescripts. I haven't updated to the version with transparency...yet.

[Phil St. Romain]

There's a new one out on versiontracker called Dock Fun (http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=13495&db=macosx) which enables you to create 10 custom docks.

Just FYI.

[Crusty]

Why only 10? Is there a limit in the OS as to the number of docks it can track? This sounds like an interesting app though. I'll check it out.

[Phil St. Romain]

Maybe it's 10 for OS 10? ;)

I don't know, really. That does seem like plenty enough Docks, however, imho.