Ask Launcher vendors to scan .AppImage in `~/Applications`

Using AppImages
1

By launcher, I mean Start-menu, launchpad, Application Menu or whatever.

All launcher is a literal implementation of XDG’s Desktop Entry Specification which will scan /usr/share/applications/ for .desktop files. Those files are usually installed via a pkg manager.

.appimage is downloaded by a user rather than through the package manager.

To have an icon on the launcher for .AppImage , a user must conduct extra steps to generate .desktop at that specific path (There are many HOW-TOs written for this mission).

What if launcher vendors can implement scanning of a special folder (~/Applications like macOS), and grab the desktop entry file automatically?

If this can be done, a program can just distribute a .appimage and tell the user to

Download Nice.AppImage and move it to ~/Applications/

This will automatically give all benefits of having .desktop file:

  • appear in the launcher as an icon
  • pinnable to taskbar
  • launch by typing names
  • …

Talking is useless, this is just a dream.

2

You would have to ask this question to the authors of the launchers (“Start-menu, launchpad, Application Menu or whatever”).

In the meantime, you can use one of the workarounds listed here: