Hello,
I really like the "search and launch" activity, but I also like to use my normal desktop. So I wonder if there is another way to start "search and launch", than switching to the activity. I would like to launch it, then choose the software I am looking for and then this software opens on my normal desktop and "search and launch" disappears. A little bit like gnome shell, but without limitations on how to set up my desktop . For that reason I would like to start it with a button on panel or awn or keyboard shortcut. Even a command to start it would help, so I could create a starter. Has anyone an idea how to do this?

maybe try Rosa launcher http://www.ubuntubuzz.com/2012/02/mandr ... buntu.html

Rosa launcher looks very good, does it work as well as it looks? I tried takeoff launcher that also looked very well but it lags when I type something I am searching for. I would try Rosa launcher but it isn't available for my distro. I found a lot of Mandriva packages, also some packages for Ubuntu, Fedora 17+, but none for Fedora 16. Also I couldn't find any page where I can download source code.
Meanwhile I found out that it is very simple to switch between activities by pressing Meta + Tab. So I could access search and launch very fast. If there would be a way to move the window quickly from one activity to the other, that would be great. The only option I found was by clicking to window title, but this method is very slow.

don't use so so can't comment on how well it functions

there appears to be Fedora packages out there http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/searc ... a-launcher (package naming isn't always consistant between distros)

the soucre code can be easily extracted from source rpm, open the srpm with Ark and you'll see the source which is the tar.bz2 file as well as any patches the distro added in the patch files

Another F17 package I tried didn't work, but the one you wrote worked very well. I think it's a great launcher, but not exactly what I am looking for. Compared with search and launch I miss a favourites section, where I can put software I use often and you can only search for programs, not for files. But compared with Takeoff, searching works very well. Also there are some other disadvantages: The launcher often opens behind other windows and not all "last used" programs are listed.
But I found another solution: There's an option to put different plasmoids on the four workspaces and not the same ones on all. I activated this option, placed search and launch on another workspace, so I only have to switch between the workspaces, which is pretty more simple than switching between activities. Anyway it would be nice to see a panel button for search and launch in further releases. There is really no need to place the whole plasmoid on the panel, so why don't do it like other plasmoids and just show a button when added to panel and the whole plasmoid when added to desktop?
At least thank you a lot for helping me to find a solution!