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So now that KDE is doing the transition from Plasma 4 to Plasma 5 I think it would be great to have a fullscreen launcher similar to what OS X has or similar to TakeOff.

About TakeOff: This project is currently not mantained, I have contacted it's developer and I asked him if he was going to rewrite the app in QML and maybe porting it to KF5 and he said no, so it's likely abandoned. See webpage here: https://code.google.com/p/takeoff-launcher/ (you can grab the code).

Yes it looks similar to Homerun but I prefer TakeOff because it's simplier approach...

About OS X Launcher: Well I think you all know this launcher, for me it simply looks beautifull (though I hate the icon bar panel at the bottom).



I really love how the 'Blur effect' is implemented in this one...

Now the conclusions: So what do you guys think? Yes I know that in KF5 we have a brand new launcher (and it looks really great) but I think we need something that runs in fullscreen and with a minimalistic approach (and the team behind KDE Visual Design would be more than a needed help!). We could make a new one from scratch, addapt Homerun, fork TakeOff or simply throw this idea.

It would be beneficial to describe the differences & advantages between TakeOff and HomeRun

Take this screenshot of Homerun for example:



It looks bloated, we have a lot of things there, too much options (top bar). If we compare this with the OS X launcher we can clearly see the differences. We can see this if we compare it with TakeOff too, that is my main complain about Homerun.

In TakeOff for example we have the search bar 'hidden' (it will only appear if we type something), we don't have the configuration button on the launcher (it can be accessed via right click the K button) and it only shows applications while Homerun puts there a bit of everything (apps, folders, documents etc and this doesn't fit very well the concept of minimal).

In conclusion (for me) TakeOff looks cleaner than Homerun.

One thing worth considering is that there is currently no single button launching in KDE, similar to Gnome, Unity or Cinnamon. In each of those desktops the meta key toggles the fullscreen launcher or menu. I would love to see this functionality built in, but also be able to be linked to a single button for launching.

lakerssuperman wrote:One thing worth considering is that there is currently no single button launching in KDE, similar to Gnome, Unity or Cinnamon. In each of those desktops the meta key toggles the fullscreen launcher or menu. I would love to see this functionality built in, but also be able to be linked to a single button for launching.

You can simply assign a global shortcut which results in that meta key to open the menu if you want that.