I'm not overly impressed with the new Unity launcher following my upgrade to 11.04. Ubuntu 10.04 with Gnome wasn't too bad once you'd sorted out all your *.desktop
files and I'd been running with this for quite a while, but the number of problems I (and others) seem to be having with Unity is considerable.
And, while I may be happy spending the next few weeks trying to nut things out, my major client base (i.e., the wife) is none too happy.
What are the options for a very simple launcher, with the following specs?
- Small icon which will bring up a text menu. Perhaps in the top area near the power button and network indicator and so forth.
- This icon should be always on top so I can get to it regardless of what's on the screen.
- This icon should be on every workspace so that I can start programs from anywhere.
- A simple text configuration file that I can edit with vi, containing just the menu name and the command to run.
- The menu should come up fast. I don't want to wait two seconds while it reads the configuration file just on the off chance I've changed something (it changes very rarely and, when it does, I'll restart it myself).
I don't really want to go back to classic Gnome since I will eventually figure out Unity, so I don't consider that an option. I'm hoping there's a simple solution to this problem that will suffice until my Unity-fu is stronger.