Edit: This worked for me in Zorin! Thanks for the ideas & discussion in the replies! https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-create-folders-in-gnome-44-to-declutter-the-application-overview

Hi, I’m looking to switch to Linux full-time on my desktop. Aside from my NAS, I’m pretty unfamiliar with Linux in general.

On Windows, I have apps pinned to the Start menu grid, with apps in groups/folders for easy access. I don’t pin anything to the taskbar or leave icons on the desktop. For the apps I care about most - and there’s around 40 of them - they’re available with just 3 clicks maximum. I can reorder them and put them in groups (or pull them out of groups) anytime.

Here’s what that looked like (note the top row): https://i.imgur.com/Y9PmYoG.png

On Zorin OS (Ubuntu-based) via Gnome, I haven’t had any such luck. ArcMenu is great but offers no app group support. This also a feature that doesn’t seem to be in very strong demand in general. I can use the Gnome menu editor (Alacarte, rebranded as “Main Menu” in Zorin) to hide the default categories & make my own. This would be a perfectly suitable solution… but doing so requires multiple steps per app - no copying & pasting, no drag & drop, each one has to be created on a per-category basis. The amount of effort is considerable. I don’t mind doing it once of course, but if I decide to reorganize, it’ll require all of that effort all over again.

I’m fully happy with Gnome, I’m looking for a productivity-first DE and the only issue is this app menu situation which is a hard deal breaker. I guess I just have three questions:

  1. Are there alternative menus I can check out which might be able to solve this?

  2. I doubt this, but: Is there an easier menu-category editor I could use? Something that allows for at least moving/copying between categories, so I can grab an app from All Apps or something and put it where I want it. Choosing a unique name, finding an icon, copying the terminal command, etc. is a ton of work just to stay organized.

  3. Would using a different DE offer the flexibility I’m looking for in this situation? I’m willing to switch DEs or even distros to fix this - it’s seriously the crux of my workflow.

If this is the wrong community to post this, please point me in the right direction and I’ll post there. Thanks in advance, I’ve been trying to find a fix for this for several hours and I’m not sure where to look for an answer.

  • CCRhode@lemmy.ml
    3·
    1 day ago

    This is probably NOT what you had in mind. What I use for launching apps under Gnome 43.9 is a traditional file manager. Historically, nautilus was Gnome’s file manager. I note that Gnome still has a file manager, but they don’t call it that. Over time nautilus has been gutted of a lot of its functionality. Thus, I have switched to PCManFM, which is a lightweight lookalike. I autostart it in my Desktop folder, which holds a handful of *.desktop shortcut files. I like the look of the “Icon” view mode because it reminds me of the old Windows 3.1 desktop. Alas, there is no grouping like what you’re hoping for (so far as I know), but you could create shortcuts to other *.desktop folders. PCManFM displays a tabbed window, and you can drag and drop icons onto folders on a window, and between tabs. I launch apps by double-clicking icons.

    • Amphy@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      Thanks for the idea, I might try that. A friend recommended switching to Plasma and creating a folder menu on the main bar that contains the groups (folders) and pins (shortcuts) that I want. I’m considering going that route. Guess I’m just surprised to see a convenient app menu solution (ArcMenu) with a whole world of customization, but no way to group pinned items together.