The Best Linux Main Menu

Another week, another poll. This time you can vote for the best Linux (main) menu. I didn't include all the menus out there in the poll, but there are more options than we usually use for our polls. The contenders are: MintMenu, Lancelot, Main Menu (the main GNOME menu), Slab, Menu bar (the Ubuntu default menu), Kickoff, USP (Ubuntu System Panel), GnoMenu, K-Menu and Cardapio.

As usual, you can vote for something not among the default options by choosing "other" and then entering your answer.

You can vote for the best Linux menu below:

Note: I've added MintMenu even though it's a USP fork and Lancelot which I believe is a Slab fork because they are somewhat different.


Don't forget to tell us why you like a certain Linux menu or suggest some other menus, in the comment form below!

Probably The Best 5 GnoMenu Themes

GnoMenu is an eye-candy GNOME menu with themes support which works with the GNOME Panel, Avant Window Navigator, Cairo Dock, KDE Plasma and starting with the latest 2.9 version: Docky.

I can't stand the default menu Ubuntu comes with and I only keep it because I have to know under which submenu the user can find an installed application when posting on WebUpd8. This wouldn't be needed if people used a menu with a search function but anyway. Also, since I install quite a few applications, half of it requires scrolling and makes it almost unusable.

From what I've seen, some are fans of Cardapio, some prefer MintMenu and forks of the Slab menu and so on. These are all great as long as you have a decent GTK theme as they don't support custom themes. Even though some might not agree, I for one prefer GnoMenu. But not using the default theme nor any theme which comes with GnoMenu but another theme from the 5 I'm about to post below.

So here is a selection of GnoMenu themes I really like and are probably among the best created so far:

1. Dark Candy

Download



2. Icon Menu v2

Download



3. Elemental Avio

Download



4. GnomElement

Download



5. BlueSmall

This tiny GnoMenu theme is great for a netbook or laptop.

Download

To install a GnoMenu theme that comes in a .tar.gz file, simply go to the GnoMenu options and on the Themes tab, click on "Install", browse for the .tar.gz file and that's it.

To install the Elemental Avio GnoMenu theme which comes in a zip package, extract the archive contents and a .tar.gz archive should be available - you can then install it like any GnoMenu theme, as explained above.

Download SHI10 GTK Linux Suite, An Amazing Theme Pack (GTK, GnoMenu, AWN, Emerald, More)

Searching for something totally unrelated, I stumbled upon an amazing theme pack created by Izo called "SHI10 GTK Linux Suite". It includes a GTK theme, two Emerald themes, a DockBarX theme, a GnoMenu theme, icon theme for the desktop, docks and so on as well as wallpapers and an Avant Window Navigator theme.

To find out how to install each of the themes included in this pack, see the README in each folder.

Download SHI10 GTK Linux Suite by Izo

GnoMenu 2.9 Released With Docky Support And A New Theme Especially Designed For Docks

GnoMenu is an eye-candy GNOME menu with themes support which works with the GNOME Panel, Avant Window Navigator, Cairo Dock, KDE Plasma and starting with the latest 2.9 version: Docky.

GnoMenu 2.9 also got a new theme, especially designed for docks (which you can see in the image above).

To install GnoMenu 2.9 in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, simply use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnomenu-team/ppa && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnomenu

To use GnoMenu with Docky, all you have to do is go to the Docky settings and enable GnoMenu under "Helpers". Then you must restart Docky to be able to use GnoMenu! That's it.

Docky Will Finally Get A Main Menu: GnoMenu

GnoMenu 2.9 will run in Docky:

There is no more info available for now. But finally, Docky will have a main menu!

GnoMenu 2.8 Released

GnoMenu - a menu with themes support which we just covered a few days ago - version 2.8 was released. The new version doesn't come with many new features but it comes with one big improvement: a new default program list widget called iconview which makes the GnoMenu a lot faster than before.

Other changes in GnoMenu 2.8 are: distro logo now has 3 diferent states, pressed, hover and normal, more translations and the usual bug fixes.

Install GnoMenu 2.8 in Ubuntu from the official PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnomenu-team/ppa && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnomenu

GnoMenu 2.7 Released With Zeitgeist Support [GNOME Main Menu Alternative]

GnoMenu is an eye-candy GNOME menu with themes support which works both for composited and non-composited desktops. It works with the GNOME Panel, Avant Window Navigator, Cairo Dock, KDE Plasma and more.

The applications supports many customizations: from changing the way the button looks to some amazing themes and more advanced features:

GnoMenu 2.7 was just released and it adds Zeitgeist support: simply right click an application in the menu and you'll see a list of most used / recently used files related to that application.

Other changes in GnoMenu 2.7:

• Places now allow 1 level browse in right click menu
• Recent files now have a open with in right click menu
• Speed improvements
• No more loading errors
• Losts of bugs fixed
• More Translations

To install GnoMenu 2.7 in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala and 10.04 Lucid Lynx, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnomenu-team/ppa && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnomenu

To take advantage of Zeitgeist functionality, also install Zeitgeist:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:zeitgeist/ppa && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install zeitgeist

Once you install GnoMenu, right click the GNOME panel, select "Add to panel" and then add the newly installed GnoMenu.

Performance-wise, GnoMenu has improved a lot. However, after selecting the option to load the menu icons into the memory so GnoMenu is more responsive, the memory usage is somewhere around 23.3 mb (as a comparison, MintMenu uses around 20 mb on my system). But that's the story with eyecandy: it requires some extra RAM.