Fly-Pie navigates through the system with pie menus
Piece of Pie
No matter whether you use Gnome or KDE, Windows or macOS, menus always pop up from a bar. Fly-Pie organizes a freely configurable menu in the form of a pie chart instead.
The way we control a desktop environment has not changed significantly since the early days of Gnome, KDE, and Xfce, even if Gnome in particular tends to take a swipe at the paradigms every now and then. Even early interface role models like GEM or the Xerox Alto operating system, the forefather of all graphical user interfaces, used graphical elements such as windows, scrollbars, or menus. Every now and then, however, it is useful to step off the familiar path and try something new. The Fly-Pie [1] extension for the Gnome desktop is a candidate for an off-the-beaten-path excursion.
In contrast to more heavily keyboard-oriented approaches such as the Gnome Shell's activity overview or launchers like Kupfer [2], Fly-Pie is aimed at users who prefer to keep their hands on the mouse instead of reaching for the keyboard. The dynamic pie menu lets you launch applications or move them to the foreground, simulate hotkey presses, and much more. The menu can be customized in a granular way thanks to the comprehensive configuration manager.
Control by Gesture
Fly-Pie is not a standalone program but an extension for the Gnome desktop version 3.34 or newer. To install it, you simply open the Gnome Shell Extensions web page [3], move the black slider from Off to On, and select Install (see the "Gnome Extensions" box). After that, the extension appears in the Gnome extension manager as manually installed. From there, you can also access the settings via the gear icon. I tested the extension on Arch Linux with the current Gnome 41.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.