This is the initial release of Qubes Application Menu. Certain functionalities (especially related to integration with desktop managers) are yet in development, however the basic functionality from initial release design is done.
If you would like to leave feedback in a quick anonymous survey, we are closely following what we learn and want to hear from folks! For bugs, however, please file issues, here.
The menu consists of three panes: Applications, Favorites and System Tools.
The Application pane contains a list of all qubes found in user's system,
sorted into App qubes (with no special role), Templates (both "normal"
templates and Disposable VM templates) and Service qubes (such as sys-usb
or sys-net). Running qubes' names are bolded.
Each qube, when selected, displays the list of all applications it exposes (which can be set in the typical way, through Qube Settings, which are also available through a convenient shortcut in the menu), and convenience options to start/stop/pause qube.
In the top right corner of the Application pane the user can also see if the selected VM is networked or not.
Disposable qubes work in a slightly different way: if an application is started from the Apps section from a Disposable VM Template (denoted by icon and italicized name), the application will start in a new disposable VM that will appear on the list underneath its parent Disposable VM Template. Any further apps can be also started in the same VM, exposing a functionality previously unavailable through GUI means - that is, starting a program inside an existing disposable VM.
All (except for those running in a disposable VM that will disappear on shutdown) applications in the main Applications pane and in the System Tools pane have a right-click menu with the option to "Add to favorites". Applications added to favorites appear in the Favorites pane for quicker access. They can also be removed from favorites from within the Favorites pane, also through a right-click menu.
All applications that can be run inside the current VM (dom0 or a GUI domain)
are located in the System Tools pane; they are divided into categories of
Qubes Tools (programs specific to Qubes), System Settings (various programs
related to system appearance etc.) and Other (Miscellanous programs found
in the system).
To search in the menu, you can just start typing your search terms while the menu is open, or select the top tab and type there:
You can search by program or qube name:
and filter the search results by qube:
The search is case-insensitive and word-order-insensitive, which allows the user to easily keep typing to specify details of their search, e.g.:
Furthermore, the found search terms are highlighted in the program and qube name.
If Search had been already used during the current session, the Search pane shows a list of recent searches.
The menu can be started via CLI: qubes-app-menu. The menu remains running
in the background until killed or restarted, to facilitate faster showing.
Useful CLI options are:
--restart- restart the running menu instance--keep-visible- do not hide menu after actions--page N- select page to be shown when started (with 1 standing for main application page, 2 being Favorites page and 3 being System Tools page.
The easiest way to use the menu is adding a Launcher item to XFCE4's panel that
contains the Open Qubes Application Menu item. It's a fast and efficient
method, however, it will use the CLI params as set by either autostart menu
position or via executing qubes-app-menu with desired params in CLI.
The menu uses one VM feature, named menu-favorites to store any VM favorites
selected by user in a persistent way. The item format is analogous to the one
used by menu-items feature, with one exception: items can be prefixed with
@disp:, which indicated they should be executed in a new disposable VM
based on the one, on which the feature is set.
- add "light" mode (current UI is dark mode, only)
- discuss using existing .menu files for categorization of local programs (that is, programs run in the VM that is running the menu)
- add placeholder entries for "missing" favorites entries (entries that are listed in appropriate VM feature, but do not currently have generated corresponding .desktop files)
- in submenu for qubes, discuss how to add color to right pane to correspond with color of selected VM; and/or, change the hover color to the color of currently selected VM
- improve performance if menu is run as an executable
- discuss adding set Terminal and Files positions to every VM
- improve and extend right-click menus - some ideas are adding the contents of current domains widget to menus for VMs, more information when an Add to favorites option is not present
- expose more menu options in the menu itself, such as --keep-visible
- add search functionality
- when search is added, add more keyboard shortcuts such as start/stop VM
- add "Restart VM" control item
- add a resize grabber
- discuss handling resizing and moving menu in a more complex way
- see full Project, here on GitHub
This work was made possible thanks to a grant from the NLnet Foundation, a nonprofit organization and Qubes Partner dedicated to supporting the growth of an open information society.