Install Gnome Pie 0.6.9 (Visual App Launcher) in Ubuntu 16.04

Gnome Pie, a radial visual application launcher, got an update recently with some improvements and fixes. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS via PPA.

Gnome Pie is an application inspired by a World of Warcraft addon called OPie, offers a cool new way to launch applications in Gnome.

While Ubuntu 16.04 offers the 0.6.8 release, Gnome-Pie 0.6.9 was released recently with following changes:

• Ability to assign hotkeys to mouse buttons. It’s now possible to open Pies with combinations such as Ctrl-RightButton.
• The library “bamf” has been made an optional dependency.
• Fix to Simple Clock theme
• The preferences window now present user’s icon theme.
• Improved modifier key managment.
• Turbo mode works quite reliably again.

Screenshots of Gnome Pie Preferences

After launching the software, go to the Preferences window from the system tray indicator menu.

There you can set the menu theme, auto-login etc, and add your prefer Applications into Pie launcher.

How to install Gnome Pie 0.6.9 in Ubuntu:

The developer offers an official Ubuntu PPA with support for Ubuntu 16.10, Ubuntu 16.04, and Ubuntu 14.04 so far.

1. Add the PPA

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:simonschneegans/testing

Type in your password when it prompts and hit Enter.

2. If you installed the previous version from Ubuntu Software, you can now launch Software Updater and upgrade Gnome-Pie after checking for updates.

Or just run the commands below instead to install or upgrade the software:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install gnome-pie

Uninstall Gnome Pie

To remove the software, simply run the command:

sudo apt remove gnome-pie && sudo apt autoremove

And the PPA can be removed with Software & Updates utility under Other Software tab.