A launcher makes items quickly accessible. They launch applications, documents, webpages and more. Also known as shortcuts; launchers provide faster, easier access to the the things they point to. And launchers may be almost anywhere – on the Desktop, in the menu, in the panel, in folders…
Anatomy of a Launcher:
[Desktop Entry] the type of file a launcher is; a desktop entry file. Name=Name of the launcher and / or thing it points to Comment=Description shown when the cursor hovers over it (tooltip) Exec=Command to open the application, start the process, etc. Terminal=Does this thing run in a Terminal; true or false? Type=Kind of launcher; usually an Application (sometimes a directory, etc.) Icon=Name of (and maybe the path to) the icon or other image file Categories=Where it'll show (under what sub-menu) in the menu
Launcher for the 12 Apostles Quiz & Memory Game, one of the 150 SWF (Flash) files that play via the born-again Gnash snap in Home. This game is included in C4C Ubuntu.
Launcher for gmail-gui With at least 1.5 billion users, Google’s Gmail is the most popular email service in the world. gmail-gui is available as a snap as shown here.
[Desktop Entry] X-SnapInstanceName=gmail-gui Name=Gmail Exec=env BAMF_DESKTOP_FILE_HINT=/var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/gmail-gui_gmail-gui.desktop /snap/bin/gmail-gui %U Terminal=false Type=Application Icon=/snap/gmail-gui/1/meta/gui/icon.png StartupWMClass=gmail-gui Comment=Snap Version of Gmail Categories=Utility; Path= StartupNotify=false
Launcher for MusicBrainz Picard, an open source, cross-platform music tagger and organizer. MusicBrainz Picard is available on Gnome Software, or via PPA, flatpack or snap as shown here.
[Desktop Entry] Name=MusicBrainz Picard Comment=Tag your music with the next generation MusicBrainz tagger Exec=picard %F Terminal=false Type=Application StartupNotify=true StartupWMClass=Picard Icon=org.musicbrainz.Picard Categories=AudioVideo;Audio;AudioVideoEditing; MimeType=application/ogg;application/x-flac;audio/aac;audio/ac3;audio/aiff;audio/ape;audio/dsf;audio/flac;audio/midi;audio/mp4;audio/mpeg;audio/mpeg4;audio/mpg;audio/ogg;audio/vorbis;audio/x-aac;audio/x-aiff;audio/x-ape;audio/x-flac;audio/x-flac+ogg;audio/x-m4a;audio/x-midi;audio/x-mp3;audio/x-mpc;audio/x-mpeg;audio/x-ms-wma;audio/x-ms-wmv;audio/x-musepack;audio/x-oggflac;audio/x-speex;audio/x-speex+ogg;audio/x-tak;audio/x-tta;audio/x-vorbis;audio/x-vorbis+ogg;audio/x-wav;audio/x-wavpack;audio/x-wma;video/x-ms-asf;video/x-theora;video/x-wmv;
Launcher for Spotify, a music streaming service with vast media library and over 400 million active users. Spotify is available via Gnome Software, or as a snap or .deb as shown here.
Launcher for Wide Margin, the simple and clean-interfaced, King James Version Bible daily reading and as-you-type search tool. This application is included in C4C Ubuntu.
Launcher for Zoom, (audio and) video conferencing software with over 300 million daily meeting participants. Zoom is available via .deb as shown here or as zoom-client snap as shown here.