Gear Lever
Version: 1.0.8 Web: https://github.com/mijorus/gearlever
AppImages, and Flatpaks for that matter, have streamlined software installation across Linux distros, taking away the complexities of dealing with different software installation tools and packaging formats.
But that’s not to say these packaging formats don’t have their shortcomings. The biggest, as far as AppImages are concerned, is their inability to integrate with the distro’s Applications menu. That’s where Gear Lever comes in, which helps integrate AppImages into your app menu with just a few mouse clicks. Interestingly, Gear Level is available on FlatHub and can be installed with flatpak install flathub it. mijorus.gearlever .
The app opens up with a blank slate. You can either drag and drop an AppImage into the interface to manage it or click the + icon to select an AppImage using the file manager. After importing an app, you have to toggle a checkbox to confirm that the AppImage is legit. Gear Lever also displays the MD5 checksum of the file to help you verify the app’s integrity.
Once an app is added, Gear Lever gives you a couple of buttons: one to launch the app and another to add it to the distro’s Applications menu. Use the first to check the app works as advertised before smashing the second one to list the app in the menu.
If you’re like us and you’ve got a bunch of AppImages, you can use Gear Lever to house all of them in a folder of your choosing. By default, it houses all AppImages it manages under ~/AppImages.
You can change the default location from the app’s Preferences menu. By default, Gear Lever helps you save space by moving the AppImage into the default folder, although you can ask it to keep the original file and instead create a copy in the destination folder.