Launchers

While Linux mobile shells are still in a very early stage, touch-optimized app launchers can significantly improve the overall user experience on touchscreen devices while using less memory than a full shell. Some of these close automatically each time an app is launched, so associating them with a particular hardware key on the mobile device might work.

There are several simple Linux launchers available, columbiad is the only one officially packaged:

GTK

• lxlauncher (LXDE official launcher, gtk2; screenshot)
• columbiad (minimal gtk3 fullscreen launcher; video demo; merged into aports)
• PocketCHIP-pocket-home (PocketCHIP Launcher; currently not in aports)
• Lightpad (Lighpad, gtk3 fullscreen launcher written in vala; currently not in aports)

Qt

• qml-launcher (qml, closes when an app is launched; screenshot)
• CoreStuff (QT, A very lightweight launcher. Can be used with a WM and as an alternative to existing shells like KDE and GNOME for a touch based experience.; CoreStuff running in postmarketOS in Nexus 5x)

Others

• XLunch: Graphical app launcher for X, using pure Xlib and Imlib2, therefore very light and needing only few dependencies (needs entries to be created manually; closes when an app is launched; screenshot)