Gnome-Pie, a circular application launcher, has reached version 0.6.x recently with exciting new features and important fixes.

Gnome-Pie is a visual app launcher which opens rings with user defined actions at the pointer. It is inspired by OPie, a World of Warcraft addon.

The project has reached the 0.6.x series with some exciting new features, such as:

• support half and quarter pies, allow to select bast pie shape automatically.
• allow to define max number of slices per pie.
• new theme, new app icon.
• new setttings menu layout
• Client Side Decorations (Gtk.HeaderBar and Gtk.StackSwitcher) support. Need to start the app via: gnome-pie --stack-switcher or gnome-pie --header-bar
• A new Pie group to show all windows of current workspace.

An old bug sometimes makes Gnome-Pie hang up and use 100% CPU has been fixed in the most recent release.

Install or Upgrade Gnome-Pie in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 15.04 and derivatives, the latest packages are available in the developer’s PPA.

1. Open terminal from the Dash/Menu (or press Ctrl+Alt+T). When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:simonschneegans/testing

2. After adding the PPA, launch Software Updater (or Updater Manager). If you have an previous version installed, Gnome-Pie should be available for upgrade in the list.

3. Or you can directly install the app from Ubuntu Software Center after checking for updates via step 2.

The Gnome-Pie project now goes alive by releasing the version 0.5.6, since the last release was announced in March 2013.

For those who have never heard of Gnome-Pie. It is a circular application launcher which is made of several pies, each consisting of multiple slices. The user presses a key stroke which opens the desired pie. By activating one of its slices, applications may be launched, key presses may be simulated or files can be opened.

See how it works:

The developer announced the 0.5.6 release recently with some fixes and planed to drop any GTK2 support and update Gnome-Pie fully to current software versions (GTK 3.14, Vala 0.27, etc.)

Changes in Gnome-Pie 0.5.6:

• Transparency under Gnome 3.10+ (thank you, Raphaël Rochet)
• Pie hotkeys start numbering with one (instead of zero, since the zero key is really hard to press)
• option windows are now resizable since they are too small with certain window managers (e.g. Gala)

Install Gnome-Pie 0.5.6 in Ubuntu:

The binary packages have been made into PPA repository, available for Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu 14.10.

To add the PPA, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:simonschneegans/testing

Type in your user password when it asks and press Enter to continue.

After you added the PPA, update system package cache and install the app launcher by running below two commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gnome-pie

Once installed, start Gnome-Pie from the Dash. From the indicator applet on panel start its settings window and configure keyboard shortcuts and pie items.