http://en.opensuse.org/Kickoff
In essence, Kickoff's main advantages over the classic menu is discoverability for new users and quicker access to applications and documents for more demanding users.
I recently started a new implementation of Kickoff from scratch using Qt 4 and KDE 4 frameworks. The goal, for KDE 4.0, is to create a copy of the original design with a clean code base and an attractive presentation which makes use of the new libraries that have been developed over the past couple of years.
The new Kickoff is currently functional but the presentation and search facilities still require work. The new Kickoff can at present be used to:
- Explore and start installed applications.
- Quickly access recently used applications and documents.
- Quickly access popular (or 'favorite') applications, documents and places
- Access important system places and settings, including removable storage
- Log out or turn off the computer
The remaining work to be done is mostly in the areas of search and presentation. I suspect that plenty of polishing and tweaking will be required. I do not have concrete long term plans for Kickoff at present, digest readers are welcome to air any ideas that they have.
For those who have KDE 4 from SVN, please do test the new implementation. The code can currently be found in playground/base/kickoff-rewrite-kde4/