Canonical has tried to shape GNOME to its liking with Unity, but as you know, it will no longer be implemented in future versions of Ubuntu, as we've already mentioned here. So now we'll simply have a pure GNOME environment in future versions of the company's popular flavor. This may disappoint many who saw Unity as an alternative to GNOME Shell , but it seems those promises of convergence and Unity 8 won't be fulfilled for now.
The truth is, there are many alternative desktop environments if you don't like GNOME and GNOME Shell. You can also use countless packages to modify the appearance of GNOME Shell and add a dock, etc., as you know. Well, that's what this article is about: one of these alternatives to the application menu or app launcher in GNOME Shell. The alternative is called Arc Menu , and it's somewhat similar to the Start menu found in Windows 7.
Arc Menu offers a fairly traditional menu , quite similar to the Windows menu as mentioned, but it can be customized with themes. It also provides quick access to local directories, system settings, and user session options. You can also search for applications or categorize them. It's a functional and practical project that can make your experience with GNOME Shell more enjoyable if you weren't entirely satisfied with the default menu.
Furthermore, LinxGem33, the developer of Arc Menu, has promised new improvements and added features for the GNOME extension we're presenting today. If you want to easily install Arc Menu with a single click from the GNOME website where extensions are located, you can do so by clicking this link, or you can go to the GitHub site or other sources where the project is hosted.