Lightweight Launchers for Linux

Two interesting lightweight launchers for Linux came across my radar today:

• Verve panel plugin for Xfce
• Synapse launcher for Gnome

There is a Debian package for the Verve plugin named xfce4-verve-plugin, which is part of xfce4-goodies. Just bind verve-focus to <Super> space in your Xfce keyboard settings and you have a lightweight easy-access command-line with quick activation along the lines of Spotlight in OS X (there’s no search functionality, just command execution).

There is a package for Synapse in Debian Wheezy (current testing) called simply synapse. It’s heavier than Verve, aiming to be a replacement for Gnome Do.