2026/06/04
Nearly two years ago, phase 3 of launch was articulated here. Since October of 2024, I've been using 9menu as my primary program for launch. Moreover, Pdmenu has been launch's sole vehicle in my consoles for over a decade; until now, I neglected to document my application of it! Hereunder, I'll provide screenshots to illustrate how launch is currently arranged and accessed.
.pdmenurc's present size is 11708; 9menu-launch/*'s present size is 232K.
Anyone who's familiar with my avocations knows that I love to collect software, and that I've been doing so since 1992. As I haven't fully perused FreeBSD's repository and I'm still collecting old UNIX programs, DOOM WADs, Quake maps, and games for Atari 2600, DOS, NES, SNES, Amiga, etc., I've plenty more to accumulate. To readily launch programs and other resources, I need menus that are lightweight, efficient, and flexible. Pdmenu (in the console, and occasionally X) and 9menu (in X) are the programs that perform optimally in that capacity.
Pdmenu has been my sole menuing program in consoles of Minix and Debian, then FreeBSD for well over a decade. It's superior to any equivalents that I used in DOS, and since it's available in nearly every UNIX-like distro's repository and easily compilable from source, I expect to implement it indefinitely.
As in 9menu, launch is categorically organized in Pdmenu. Here's the main menu:
To maximize ease, lock, quicksuite, and references are listed above the categories, so that I can lock the console immediately whenever necessary, and quickly access my most useful programs and references while working.
Pictured above, quicksuite is the single most important menu of launch, where I execute my most useful programs.
Most of the time, I just use references to access my dictionary or Webster's gargantuanly unabridged dictionary while working. Less often, documentation is accessed whenever I need to learn or recall some minutia about a program's functions.
All of the categorized programs require scant introduction and no explanations.
Games and toys are similarly ordered by genres.
This is what my X/mcwm looks like when it's launched:
In case you were wondering, yes: that's Hana and Alice in the background because they rule.
Since my 9menus encompass most of the items listed in Pdmenu and hundreds more that run under X, they're far larger and slightly more sophisticated.
Here, quicksuite lists more programs. xtrlock tops the list, as lock is nigh-useless in X. thingylaunch is handy when testing new programs or just executing something differently. Quake and XEvil are itemized because I'm not picking through 2 to 3 menus for games that I play nearly every day. Directory is the categorical hub of launch in X. Note that Directory and quicksuite can be launched from each other in case either is accidentally closed.
Other than those in games+toys, most of these menus are merely more voluminous variants of their counterparts in Pdmenu, but there are exceptions....
For obvious reasons, audio instruments is here audio/video instruments. In Pdmenu, bc is relegated to miscellany, but I have a couple other calculators for X.
I needn't explain why graphical implements is only a 9menu. These come and go more often than I'd prefer.
Even more informational utilities are listed here, and their volume necessitates two menus.
Office suites originally contained both OpenOffice and LibreOffice, but cultists of GNOME have yoked godforsaken GTK3 as a dependency of Qt6 in FreeBSD's repository, and I won't submit to their insanity. LibreOffice's programs are and will be hashed out in its 9menu's file until I compile it from source without that trash. Ugh! It'll be back.
You might be surprised to see just how many more games and toys I have for X; even after all these years, I still am! Plenty of menued genres here can't be found in Pdmenu: block breakers, console emulators, FPS, platformers, shmups, and swatters. That said, textual games for the console are still quite prominent throughout these 9menus.
Of course, nearly all of the shmups are clones, forks, or both. The first 9menu specifies its clones of classics Asteroids, Defender, Galaga, Missile Command, and Space Invaders. Word War vi's many modes obliged the creation of its own menu.
Mesa demos is a massive suite: hundreds of programs cataloged in a whopping seven 9menus!
© 2026 Robert Buchanan