Writing an OS Kernel from Scratch – Part 27: Application Launcher — Building Your Desktop Environment Prototype
“A graphical interface can’t just have windows — it needs an entry point! Today, we implement an Application Launcher, managing applications via .desktop files and launching them with a click!”
In the previous post, we successfully moved the Display Server and Client to userspace, implementing a multi-window graphics system. But users still had to manually type exec("/bin/painter") in the terminal to start a program — lacking an intuitive application entry point.
A real desktop environment needs an Application Launcher:
- Iconified application display
- Application properties defined via config files
- Click icons to launch programs
Today, we:
✅ Design .desktop configuration file format
✅ Implement Launcher application
✅ Develop two sample applications (Terminal & Painter)
✅ Integrate icon display and click-to-launch
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