Is there something similar to the Android AppDrawer/App Launcher?

I'm curious about this, i haven't seen something similar, the Unity Dash is something pretty close to that but it requires all of Unity which i don't like at all.

Then there's Slingshot from the elementaryOS guys, but it's not even released yet, so that it's not currently an option.

Is there anything else, that does the same as the Android Appdrawer ?

Solution 1:

I've written a little app that is very similar to folders on a Mac dock called Drawers: http://launchpad.net/drawers

You can put just about anything in a drawer by drag and drop. You can even nest drawers inside one another. See below for a screenshot.

To install, run the following in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ian-berke/ppa-drawers
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install drawers

Then create your first drawer by opening the dash and typing Drawers (or executing /opt/extras.ubuntu.com/drawers/bin/drawers if you're not using Unity). The drawer is just a .desktop launcher file in ~/.local/share/applications. Just drag it to the launcher or put the .desktop file where you want. Applications can be added by dragging from the dash or nautilus to an open drawer. All other files/links can be added by dropping on open drawer or the launcher. This was designed for Unity, but I've tested in gnome-shell too.

Solution 2:

Probably not.

If you're looking for an 'app drawer' there is nothing that I know of that provides that graphical functionality alone.

For the ability to type in things to launch you have: gnome-do, kupfer, and synapse.

For an alternative to Unity, you can use Gnome-Shell from the gnome3 team that also supplies a similar 'app drawer' functionality. Of course gnome-shell is like unity in that it changes how you interact with your desktop.

But if you want to give it a try, I suggest building it from source, because it will allow you to fall back to your default desktop configuration if necessary without the hassles of needing ppa-purge. Note that building it from source may take a long time (over an hour)

Instructions here: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/install-gnome-shell-from-git-in-ubuntu.html