[Solved] Best way to organize programs?

tok · 2016-09-14 21:39:24

Another day, another stupid question

Ok, so either there is no central list of installed programs (like the "applications" folder at Mac OS X), or I just don't know where it is.

If the latter is true, please point me towards it.

Should the former be true, how do you organize your programs? I mean, over the years, I personally tend to amass programs, of which I'm using some very infrequently, but still often enough to not simply remove them. Of some, I forget the name or that I had installed it already, which is why a list would e handy.

Additionally, I'd like to be able to go to some kind of central directory, instead of navigating to some folders and subfolders to run a program. I'm sure that this is mostly my own lack of capability to properly install them, but I can start some programs from terminal by simply typing their names(basically everything installed with apt-get), while this doesn't work for others(Dwarf Fortress comes to mind. I think it was a .tar.gz file).

Thanks for reading.

Last edited by tok (2016-09-14 21:53:31)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-09-14 21:44:31

tok wrote:

Ok, so either there is no central list of installed programs (like the "applications" folder at Mac OS X), or I just don't know where it is.
If the latter is true, please point me towards it.

/usr/share/applications

Also:

man hier

Although personally I just use dmenu (<ALT>+F3 in BL, I think) to show me what's in my $PATH

tok · 2016-09-14 21:53:06

*insert Thank you Gif*

Nice, thanks. That's exactly what i was looking for

That Alt+F3 thing is nifty, I like it.

I feel bad that I can only ask questions and not really give back. I know a tiny, tiny bit about blockchain and that's it…

damo · 2016-09-14 22:04:27

I have a menu entry for the Debian menu (which displays entries for applications with installed <application>.desktop files).

sudo apt-get install menu

Add this to menu.xml:

<menu id="/Debian" />

Don't forget to update the Debian menu after installing an application:

update-menus

ohnonot · 2016-09-15 06:18:03

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

/usr/share/applications

additionally also ~/.local/share/applications.

i tend to agree with op; while i respect bunsenlabs decision to not use a full application menu, even a simple pointer like this would be useful.

geekosupremo · 2016-09-15 23:41:37

Perhaps a weird spin on this quesition but what about apps downloaded from outside of the apt "store".

For example Firefox Developer Edition. I know I can run it just fine by clicking on the icon but is there an easy way to put it in the "list" of applications?

damo · 2016-09-16 00:14:19

Create a .desktop file for it;
or
Put it in the menu;
or
Write down the executable name in a text file;
or

apropos firefox

;
or
etc, etc

ohnonot · 2016-09-16 05:32:34

geekosupremo wrote:

I know I can run it just fine by clicking on the icon but is there an easy way to put it in the "list" of applications?

ohnonot wrote:

additionally also ~/.local/share/applications.

is that too difficult?

geekosupremo · 2016-09-16 16:16:21

@damo @ohnonot These are all good solutions. And no, none of them are 'too hard', just not entirely clear.

I didn't realize I could make my own .desktop files, I thought those were created by the original application creator. I'll look into this, thanks for mentioning it.

Also when I look into ~/.local/share/applications the files that are there seem differnt from the ones in the folder that I unziped from Mozilla. I'm sure there's more research to be done here, which I will do.

Thank you all for your patience.

*edit*
For those that may come to this thread later I found this Arch Wiki page useful for understanding this better.

Last edited by geekosupremo (2016-09-16 17:13:25)

seppalta · 2016-09-17 03:06:47

Openbox Guide, in particular, numbers 8, 9, 11, 26.

Last edited by seppalta (2016-09-17 03:08:31)

ohnonot · 2016-09-17 07:54:40

+1 for seppalta's lxlinux site.
+1 to op for finding what they need (archwiki)!

#1 2016-09-14 21:39:24

[Solved] Best way to organize programs?

#2 2016-09-14 21:44:31

Re: [Solved] Best way to organize programs?

#3 2016-09-14 21:53:06

Re: [Solved] Best way to organize programs?

#4 2016-09-14 22:04:27

Re: [Solved] Best way to organize programs?

#5 2016-09-15 06:18:03

Re: [Solved] Best way to organize programs?

#6 2016-09-15 23:41:37

Re: [Solved] Best way to organize programs?

#7 2016-09-16 00:14:19

Re: [Solved] Best way to organize programs?

#8 2016-09-16 05:32:34

Re: [Solved] Best way to organize programs?

#9 2016-09-16 16:16:21

Re: [Solved] Best way to organize programs?

#10 2016-09-17 03:06:47

Re: [Solved] Best way to organize programs?

#11 2016-09-17 07:54:40

Re: [Solved] Best way to organize programs?

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