Greetings,
I'm very curious as to what, if any, replacement launcher the folks here favor.
My first two PDAs were Handspring Visors (a Deluxe and then an Edge) and were monochrome devices. Somewhere along the way I found and latched onto Silver Screen and didn't look back until recently when my Edge died and I replaced it with a CLIE PEG-SJ33. Moving into the world of color, doubling my RAM, and adding the MS slot made me start considering other alternatives. Currently I have both ZLauncher and YiShow on my SJ33 and am doing some quasi-side-by-side comparisons. There are things I like better about each of them. I've had ZLauncher for a few days longer than YiShow. I've played with and removed (and almost entirely ruled out) LauncherX.

[Prior to editing I had some quick-hit comments in here... "I wish ZLauncher had this thing that YiShow has...", "I wish YiShow had this thing that ZLauncher has..." And then I fiddled with ZLauncher a bit more and discovered that it actually did have a reasonable facsimile of what I was wishing it had from YiShow. I intend to continue to evaluate both, but ZLauncher has just pulled ahead in my book.]

eponymous

I'm running LauncherX. It was the update from Launcher III, which I had to run in order to access the MemPlug I used to have on my Visor Deluxe. The Visor went belly-up and so I installed LX on my Clie T-615C. OS 4 on the Clie is capable of seeing the Memory Stick (of course), but LauncherX lets me arrange shortcuts to the MS on the same category page as the apps in the Clie's RAM. In other words, I don't have to go to the "Memory Card" category to see what's on the MS.

My 2 cents worth...

When I first got my SJ30, my first color pda, I too played with the various launchers out there. But eventually I realized (for me) that the added overhead wasn't really giving me anything. I use Wassup which loads on power, and have my 5 most active apps as launch buttons there. TealLaunch gives me a popup menu for another 12 apps, and that's all I really need to deal with. Life's simplier, and less stuff crammed in RAM.

i personally like zlauncher the most
it's more than just a launcher, it's also a file manager and so on
it's very customizable, but the only downfall is the size.

I am still using the old MegaLauncher V3.2.2. I tried all the newer "high-end" launchers like ZL and YIShow, but I found them being too slow on my old Clie.

I prefer ZLauncher. A lot of great features that provide a great deal of customization. You can make the interface as cluttered or as clean as you wish (you can even hide all buttons, tabs, and labels and just have icons if you want). You can have a background or no background. It is fantastic. I used to use LX and I can say that ZLauncher has all the functionality I was using with LX.

Another vote for ZLauncher here.

I had been using Launcher III, so was aware of the hype that had been growing for sometime regards it's becoming LauncherX. So, when LauncherX was announced, I decided to make the upgrade.
Well, for all the waiting and hype about it, I found LauncherX to be a disappointment.

So, started researching other replacement launchers. Eventually settled on ZLauncher and have been very happy with it since. Especially impressed with how quickly the developers react to user requests with upgrades (as documented on the forums at ClieSource (http://www.cliesource.com/)).

Originally posted by cbeaman
but LauncherX lets me arrange shortcuts to the MS on the same category page as the apps in the Clie's RAM. In other words, I don't have to go to the "Memory Card" category to see what's on the MS. Is Launcher X the only launcher that allows this? I'm using a Tungsten T (OS5) and was a long-time Launcher III user with my VIIx. Right now, I've been using the plain Palm launcher and haven't really had a strong desire to upgrade. But I'm interested in the shortcut plugs - that would be nice. Does Launcher X also allow you to associate a PDB file to an application so you could open a particular file using the associated app?

Zlauncher also allows you to do that...whatever is in the Palm-->Launcher folder on the MS is placed in the unfiled category, and you can drag it to whatever tab you want.

New version of ZLauncher is out, including some built-in support for iSilo... here's the release notes...

3.20 - 06/02/2003

Added ability to manually sort app icons. Note, this feature is only available for Application tabs.
Added support for directly open ISilo and WordSmith documentations, even ISilo/WordSmith is stored in /Palm/Launcher/ directory of the expansion card. Also can open READ-ONLY ISilo/WordSmith documentations from expansion card.
Added presets for creating ISilo/WordSmith documentation tab in New Tab form.
Added options to specify the max columns of Icon View and List View. Now you can specify the column width when you are not using Average icon alignment.
Added an option in File Manager to hide the 'a68k' databases.
Added more color display in the File Manager to distinguish Read-Only and Hidden items.
Added File Manager Preferences to setup the preferences of File Manager.
Added ability to list apps' version string in File Manager.
Added an option to disable the support for Attention Indicator, which will fix the minor refresh problem when ZLauncher's main screen appears.
Added a new Card Tag icon for apps stored on second expansion card.
Added an option to specify the non-solid icon highlight.
Disabled 1-bit and 2-bit color depth modes, due to some compatible issues with PalmOS 5.
Fixed the conflict with Uninstall Manager's Background Monitoring feature.
Due to a bug in v3.20B2, this version will resort all application icons in alphabetically one more time to fix the incorrect ZLauncherDB.
Miscellaneous updates and bug-fixes.

Wow. I downloaded and installed ZLauncher (v3.20B4), and all I can say is I am VERY impressed with this launcher. Excellent configurability and great support of 5-way navigation. And only $12! Definitely will be registering this one.

I am puzzled by the comment about Zlauncher and shortcuts, and assume I must be missing something.

I know Zlauncher provides shortcuts, but do they do what the LauncherX shortcuts do, that is allow you to sync an application that is on the storage card and has its own conduit? For example, you can put Shadow on a card, create a shortcut, and then sync Shadow databases via the conduit.

In LauncherX, to access an application on the card, you do not need to create a shortcut: the application simply appears on the screen. Is that not the same with Zlauncher?

I tried Zlauncher. It is a fine application, but it does not add anything that I, who use LauncherX, would use. As for all those background images, I avoid them, as they simply make the screens harder to read.

radleyp

I don't think you are missing anything. It's likely just a matter of taste, and particular needs vs. value. I don't care about background images either. But I do like the customization abilities of ZLauncher and the interface it uses to make those customizations.

I was a long-time Launcher III user and debated moving to LauncherX, but after getting my T|T I went with the OS launcher for awhile. More and more people raved about custom launchers, so I'd thought I'd give some a try.

There is a comparison chart of launchers here (http://www.launchplug.com/Launcher_chart.html). It appears that Launcher X and ZLauncher are very similar in feature sets. Interesting to note that while Launcher X does not provide for wallpaper support, there are plans to.

To me, the differences between launchers are minimal. According to that chart, Launcher X provides password-protection for tabs, but not an "All" tab. LX also has an auto-scan of multiple folders. LX does offer different views per category (this is the one difference that really matters to me - I'd like that feature).

I was impressed with ZLauncher's price/value. It's less than half the cost of LauncherX, providing nearly identical features. Hard to argue with that one.

I still haven't played around with shortcuts yet, and am not sure if LauncherX and ZLauncher implement them differently. Your post indicates that things might be easier or "automatic" with Launcher X in regards to using program shortcuts, but I have no way to compare just yet.

I do want to start moving my seldom-used Shadow lists to my external card, however. (and I'm sure I'll mess something up and be asking for your help ... )

All in all, I don't think ZLauncher or Launcher X are necessarily better than one another, just different. The overlap of functionality is huge, and it often just comes down to preferring the little things of one app vs. another. You said you use Shadow (as do I). We could probably be having a very similar discussion about Shadow and Bonsai, or Datebk5 and Agendus.

[edit]: One thing I forgot to add was that Launcher X is almost half the size of ZLauncher (430 KB vs. 815 KB). That could be very important to some users.

Thanks for the tip on the chart. Yes, the two are very similar. But I don't understand the pricing issue: if you already owned LIII, as I did, you merely needed to upgrade to LX ($9, if I remember correctly). So LX was in fact cheaper. radleyp

That's a good point, although I think the upgrade cost was more than that, and it was only for a limited time. IIRC, I remember being a little put-off by the restrictions of the upgrade.

The problem for me is justifying the cost of a *launcher.* OK, so $30 isn't that much, and I wouldn't hesitate to spend that much on a program that truly made my day better and me more productive (ShadowPlan is an excellent example of this).

But how much do I really *NEED* a launcher? Aside from getting completely "geeked out" messing around with all the different layout options, a custom launcher doesn't really strike me as a critical app. I know this could spark a passionate debate from some, but it all boils down to preference and needs. I'm sure there are plenty of people who could care less about an outliner program like Shadow. But I depend on it and consider it critical for my needs.

For me, a custom launcher is really more like an accessory or "icing on the cake", "candy", etc. Nice, but not absolutely essential. So, for an "extra" like that, $12 just seems much more reasonable that $30. Again, that is for *me* - YMMV.

I still haven't actually purchased a launcher, so I may give Launcher X a try after all and investigate their upgrade pricing. If I can get Launcher X for $15 or less (as an upgrade), I may consider purchasing that program. But right now, ZLauncher is definitely ahead for me.

A replacement launcher WAS not critical for me either, till I purchased a Memory Stick: at that point, I needed a program that would access it and allow me to play with the MS files. Both Zlauncher and LX allow that, while the built-in launcher does not (I can't understand why not). But most of the replacement stuff is eye candy and that does not interest me at all. I think I would prefer being able to do everything from the hard buttons and the jog dial, but that requires that I remember where things are, so it's self-defeating (I do use McPhling, but that's just to go back and forth between two applications). Since you have a T/T I think you should look at the brand new 5 Nav - it makes excellent use of that navigator dial. radleyp

Thanks for the 5 Nav tip. I may try that out.... In principal, it looks similar to Single Button Launcher, just using the 5-way nav instead of the hard buttons.

Currently, I'm using QLaunch. I ended up registering that one, even after considering Single Button Launcher (which was free). For me, the logic of QLaunch made more sense, and I like how it works. The interface (settings) is excellent and the program is rock-solid stable.

Of course, your point about having to remember button mappings is a good one. I used to use TealLaunch, and had a whole bunch of button and stroke mappings. Remembering them all was sometimes a bit tiresome.

One nice thing about QLaunch is that it provides an easy, one-button export of all your mappings to a Memo doc, which is titled with a date/time stamp. This is nice to have when first configuring button mappings.

I have mine arranged pretty logically (for my fuzzy head at least) and they're memorized by now. Oh yeah, QLaunch also has great built-in Bluetooth support (toggle on/off directly or go to BT prefs) and power-on protection (keeping Palm from accidentally turning on). This enabled me to get rid of two programs I was using. So it was worth the cost for me. ($12, I think)

By the way, you said you are a Shadow Plan user - do you belong to that mailing list? Pretty active, awesome support from Jeff, the developer. PM me if you want info.

In fairness to the Launcher III/X guys....

I previously posted incorrect information RE: the upgrade from LIII to LX. I found an old e-mail sent to me last Nov. when LauncherX was released:

Standard Launcher X pricing is $24.95, as a registered Launcher III customer you may cross-grade to Launcher X for a HUGE discount:
It's only $5.95, valid until November 30th.
$7.95 during the month of December and then $9.95 thereafter.

Well, I downloaded and tried out Launcher X. All looks great, I like the interface and how options are accessed (especially since I was a LIII user and they're in the same place).

But there is ONE BIG PROBLEM that will keep me from using Launcher X. Even though the manual claims that there is 5-way support, it is missing a crucial feature I want. When looking at the list of apps (on any tab), I want to be able to quickly move to another tab. With ZLauncher, all I have to do is press right on the 5-nav to go to the next tab (press left to go to previous tab). With LX, I have to scroll to the bottom of that tab's listing, then press down to go to next tab. In other words, right and left navigation are not supported at the tab level (when no apps are selected).

This is very important to me, as I keep my apps listed in the icon view so I can easily launch using a finger (not the one that's been in my nose....)

I understand that you can quickly flip through the tabs using the Home silkscreen button, but since I have a Tungsten T, and pretty much only open my slider to HotSync, I just don't use the Home button much.

I'm sure Launcher X is a fantastic launcher. I was very happy with Launcher III, and LX seems like a better, turbo-charged version of LIII. But that one tab scrolling issue.... If there is a way to configure Launcher X to scroll the tabs using the right and left nav, I'd love to know. It sounds minor, but that's the kind of little thing that will keep me from coughing up money (even if it's only $9.95).

Yes, I do use Shadow, and am on the yahoo groups list, though I am not as active as I thought I might be. It is indeed a superb program with superb support.

Funny about LX: what you describe is easy to do with the Sony jog dial. And I don't know if you can count on anything changing soon, since Bozidar Benc seems very quiet these days.

radleyp

Yeah... I e-mailed their support about developing OS5 versions of their Pop-Up hacks. I loved Pop-Up Note, Pop-Up Calc and Pop-Up Time.

After playing around with ZLauncher more, I'm going to stick with it. I just like the way it works for me.

I have tried all of the above launchers, but a friend of mine turned me on to Zlauncher. I was pretty ambivalent about it, until 3.x. There is literally nothing that I want to do with it that I cannot do.

The best thing about Zlauncher is it is updated like every other week.

Edit: Oh and I forgot the primary reason I got Zlauncher in the first place. Sony Clie Hi-Res support.

LauncherX also has hi-res support. I must tell you that I am looking for a reason to switch to Zlauncher, but I can find none. radleyp

OK, I'll take a shot. Here are the top 10 reasons to switch from LauncherX to Zlauncher.

10) X is outdated. Z is the new X.
9) Z is closer to God, since He is the Alpha AND the Omega.
8) If I'm not going to be first, I might as well be dead last.
7) You can convince your geek friends to switch while intelligently discussing the relative merits of Zlauncher.
6) You really need to do something with all that money you are hoarding.
5) Boredom.
4) The fatalistic need to mess up all of your settings.
3) Ch-ch-change.
2) Names are so similar, you won't even notice.
And of course #1--
1) Cause I said so damnit. ;-)

Seriously, I was all set to try to convince you to change, but after having checked out the updates to LauncherX (I remembered it as LauncherIII), there is no reason. If I did not have one already, it would be a difficult choice.

Every one of your reasons was convincing, but sorry, I suddenly got cheap, and decided to stay with what I have. If I were buying a new launcher today, I would probably buy Zlauncher - somehow, don't know quite how or why, it looks better. But when it comes to features, as Ken Green has pointed out, they both do pretty much the same thing in similarly efficient ways. radleyp

I have learned from a LauncherX forum that the shortcuts in Zlauncher will not allow you to sync via a conduit as they do in LX. If I have, say, Wordsmith on the card, and set a shortcut, all my data is synced back and forth. With ZL, to sync, Wordsmith must be kept in RAM. radleyp

This article (http://www.launchplug.com/Conduit.html) describes getting around that limitation.

It's telling you to use LauncherX to create the shortcuts, which can then be used in another Launcher.

To create a Shortcut file you need to use either Launcher III or LauncherX. Once the shortcut file has been created you do not need to keep using LIII or LX for the files to keep working. You can even delete LIII or LX and the files will continue to operate properly with your HotSync conduit.
Whether that is "fair" or not, I don't know.

As I play around with ZLauncher more and more (see brahamt's #4) , I'm beginning to think that it offers quite a bit more customization than LauncherX. And I'm not just talking about skins (which I don't use).

Originally posted by radleyp
I have learned from a LauncherX forum that the shortcuts in Zlauncher will not allow you to sync via a conduit as they do in LX. If I have, say, Wordsmith on the card, and set a shortcut, all my data is synced back and forth. With ZL, to sync, Wordsmith must be kept in RAM. radleyp

I'm not quite certain what you mean here. Do you mean that in Zlauncher, the shortcuts will not synch with HotSynch?

Or do you mean that the data in a Wordsmith document will not synch?

Edit: Nevermind, I read kenneth's link. I wonder if the reason I don't run into this is powerrun?

Originally posted by brahamt
I wonder if the reason I don't run into this is powerrun? That would be my guess. I considered PowerRun, but thought that the ZLauncher file management functions, coupled with Filez, would be enough.

I may have been wrong.

You're happy with PowerRun? What device are you using it with? Oh wait, Clie NX-60... What problems have you run into with PowerRUN? Can you literally move *ANY* installed program to an external card? How long is the delay with card access?

Sounds like PowerRun might be a great solution for apps I need, but only use some of the time.

I don't see the point of PowerRun with either Zlauncher or LauncherX.

Yes, Zlauncher is indeed more customizable, but to what purpose? You yourself have stated here that you weren't too sure you even needed a supplementary launcher (and I must tell you that some other users, more sophisticated than I, that I have found on other sites, find no need for them). Remember that with the built-in launcher, you can put everything on one tab, and find any application quickly by simply entering the first letter of its name.

When I played with ZL some months ago, I "customized" to distraction only to find that I could not remember why I had done what I had done. I want any launcher to access the memory card and give me the ability to use what is there just I can use what is in RAM (thus the importance of the shortcuts). The rest is much less important. radleyp

I voted for the stock launcher, but in all honesty, I rarely find myself even using that. I use the EasyLaunch hack which I have configured to run 25 different apps/functions using hard key combinations. Drilling through any launcher is a waste of time IMHO.

Noted. I also use EasyLaunch, but EasyLaunch can access apps on a card only if they have a shortcut. That means you must use a 3rd party launcher. I keep both Shadow and Wordsmith on my MS, and because I have set shortcuts, can access them via EasyLaunch. radleyp

I use Powerrun to move programs and databases to the memory stick. I realize that the launchers can do that now, but I have not tested their capabilities and don't know if they can move as much data as I would like.

You got me thinking now. I am going to try this out with NetFront before going to bed.

I'll let you know in the morning.

You can move everything to and from the Memory Stick simply by using MSImport and mounting the memory stick as a drive on the PC, and it's a lot faster than with PowerRun. radleyp

Tried just about all of them...none really did it for me...YiShow was probably the nicest, though.

im a recently converted zlauncher fan

I'm the one who voted for SilverScreen. The only one.
Who was it who said "When everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking."?
I must be the only Mac guy here, too.

It's lonely at the top.
POL9A

There is a poll over on ClieSource and Zlauncher is taking the rest out behind the wood shed. Not exactly a fair fight tho. The people over a ClieSource introduced me to Zlauncher and I think it might have been the 1st to support HiRes+.

Between this site and ClieSource, my favorite PDA related sites.

Launcher X is my preference, and for me Launcher X is more than just icing. It allows me to keep icons organised as I wish regardless of being on internal or external memory, it provides extra utils, etc.

I'm the one who voted for SilverScreen. The only one.
Who was it who said "When everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking."?
I must be the only Mac guy here, too.

It's lonely at the top.
POL9A

So, as humans we change and evolve and adapt and...yes, I've left SilverScreen. I liked it while I had it, but it didn't evolve with me. My T|T and T|3 crapped out on me and I got the Zodiac2, but SilverScreen didn't release a landscape version to complement it. I asked PocketSensei and other members of the Yahoo! group also wanted the feature, but it still didn't come. Since I couldn't use the launcher I paid for, I used the default Zodiac2 launcher and it was just alright. It was serviceable I guess, but I wanted more.

A fellow used-to-be SilverScreener mentioned that they moved to ZLauncher and I tried it...AND I LOVE IT!!

I dig the different-wallpapers-for-each-tab feature, the intense customization options, the iSilo support and everything else about it. It sucked to have to buy another launcher (would've been nice if the launcher I already bought offered me the little thing I asked for) but ZLauncher is just so wonderfully powerful.

I already voted in this poll, otherwise I'd add another tally to the ZLauncher constituency.
Life goes on.
POL9A

I mainly use LauncherX; I first started using it because it was, and I believe still is, the only launcher program to easily allow a user to define paths on a memory card to display programs - without the use of 'stub' applications. The programs are all integrated, unlike the default launcher, MegaLauncher, and others that seperate out the Memory Card programs and the RAM programs.
I do also use MegaLauncher because of the easy drag-n-drop in the Commander portion of the program.
One of my favorite things about LauncherX is that it is very functional and not cluttered, but also very nice.

Just FYI, Zlauncher allows for all this, and is much more customizable. I had used LX but when development stopped (owing to the shocking death of Benc), I tested out ZL and switched. BTW, I think you are mistaken about the operation of LX: as I recall, it required the user to create stubs to access applications on the memory card. ZL does not. Philippe Radley

I thought LauncherX can run apps directly from the card w/o stubs (at least on the PDAs that I've had); however, if those programs have data that need to be HotSynced (like with money management programs, some graphical programs), then you do need a stub application in the main RAM for HotSync to see. I believe this is a PalmOS or a HotSync problem, however. I could be wrong though.
It is a bit difficult since there is no developement of LX though; at least it is stable for me. ZL, ML, SS, and other Launchers all have a lot of features and look nice, I've just stayed with LX. If I upgrade my PDA again (won't be anytime soon :rolleyes: ) I probably will switch....
J

Just FYI, Zlauncher allows for all this, and is much more customizable. I had used LX but when development stopped (owing to the shocking death of Benc), I tested out ZL and switched. BTW, I think you are mistaken about the operation of LX: as I recall, it required the user to create stubs to access applications on the memory card. ZL does not. Philippe Radley