i’ve moved away from deskbar to gnome-do as my primary launcher.

gnome-do [plugins] there’s a few plugins available that most ubunut/linux launchers already have, but the interface is the solid selling point gnome-do. i also haven’t had any issues with it, unlike deskbar which will randomly lock up and require a reload.

there are even plugins for gmail contacts and google calendar, but they look like they might be bleeding edge. i’ll have to look into the google api plugins to see how to get them installed/working, but any of the other plugins i tried are installed and working.