PalmOS Launcher Replacement Poll

eponymous · 05-27-2003, 02:25 PM

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

cbeaman · 05-27-2003, 02:39 PM

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...

gvtexas · 05-27-2003, 07:10 PM

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.

jwy · 05-27-2003, 09:47 PM

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.

Alexander Turcic · 05-28-2003, 03:09 AM

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.

volcanopele · 05-29-2003, 07:18 PM

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.

Jeffwc · 06-01-2003, 10:58 AM

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).

kennethmgreen · 06-01-2003, 02:01 PM

Quote:

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?

crh3f · 06-01-2003, 09:33 PM

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.

eponymous · 06-02-2003, 09:41 AM

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.

kennethmgreen · 06-02-2003, 10:48 AM

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.

radleyp · 06-03-2003, 11:49 AM

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

kennethmgreen · 06-03-2003, 02:47 PM

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. 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.

radleyp · 06-03-2003, 02:59 PM

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

kennethmgreen · 06-03-2003, 03:19 PM

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.

05-27-2003, 02:25 PM	#1
eponymous Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 23180 Join Date: May 2003 Device: Sony CLIE PEG-SJ33	PalmOS Launcher Replacement Poll 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 Last edited by eponymous; 05-27-2003 at 03:08 PM.

06-01-2003, 10:58 AM	#7
Jeffwc Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2003 Device: Sony Clie SJ33	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). Last edited by Jeffwc; 06-01-2003 at 03:40 PM.

06-02-2003, 10:48 AM	#11
kennethmgreen Enthusiast Posts: 39 Karma: 36 Join Date: May 2003 Device: Treo680	ZLauncher 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.

06-03-2003, 02:47 PM	#13
kennethmgreen Enthusiast Posts: 39 Karma: 36 Join Date: May 2003 Device: Treo680	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. 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. Last edited by kennethmgreen; 06-03-2003 at 02:51 PM.

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05-27-2003, 02:39 PM	#2
cbeaman Member Posts: 14 Karma: 38 Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: FW, TX Device: Clie T-615C	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...

05-27-2003, 07:10 PM	#3
gvtexas Addict Posts: 346 Karma: 7797 Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Texas Device: Sony Clie TH55	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.

05-27-2003, 09:47 PM	#4
jwy Member Posts: 21 Karma: 42 Join Date: May 2003 Device: NX70v	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.

05-28-2003, 03:09 AM	#5
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,175 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	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.

05-29-2003, 07:18 PM	#6
volcanopele Connoisseur Posts: 52 Karma: 2110 Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Tucson, AZ Device: Clie NR70V	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.

06-01-2003, 09:33 PM	#9
crh3f Member Posts: 21 Karma: 40 Join Date: Jun 2003 Device: Sony Clie NR70V	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.

06-02-2003, 09:41 AM	#10
eponymous Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 23180 Join Date: May 2003 Device: Sony CLIE PEG-SJ33	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.

06-03-2003, 11:49 AM	#12
radleyp Evangelist Posts: 499 Karma: 20623 Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: North Salem & NYC, NY Device: Kindle Global, iphone4, ipad	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

06-03-2003, 02:59 PM	#14
radleyp Evangelist Posts: 499 Karma: 20623 Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: North Salem & NYC, NY Device: Kindle Global, iphone4, ipad	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

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06-03-2003, 03:19 PM	#15
kennethmgreen Enthusiast Posts: 39 Karma: 36 Join Date: May 2003 Device: Treo680	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.