The official Linux Mint GNOME Shell (more about Linux Mint 12 here) extensions can be downloaded via GitHub. However, since some of them are forks of the official GNOME Shell extensions, it's not a good idea to install and activate all of them because of possible conflicts with the original extensions.

If you want to manually install some of the MGSE extensions, get the Git branch, open the "test" script and remove any extensions you don't want to install. And finally, run the "test" script (./test).

For Arch Linux, you can find all the MGSE extensions in AUR: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=53742

To make it easier for Ubuntu users to give some of the new MGSE (Mint GNOME Shell Extensions) a try, I've uploaded 3 extensions to the WebUpd8 GNOME 3 PPA (all credits for the extensions: Linux Mint and their official authors, all I did was to upload them to the PPA).

Cardapio is a menu for GNOME that can work as a panel, AWN or Cairo Dock applet and even as a stand-alone application.

If you find Dash to be confusing and want to use a classic menu in Unity, you have at least two alternatives: Cardapio or a new ClassicMenu Indicator.

As you probably know, we maintain a MintMenu Ubuntu PPA. Because of some changes in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, MintMenu failed to work but a package which fixes this was uploaded to Linux Mint 11 so I've uploaded this version to the WebUpd8 MintMenu PPA.

MintMenu is one of the best menu applets for Linux and is developed by the Linux Mint team. The applet doesn't work in Unity but I'm sure those who are still using the classic Ubuntu desktop session will find it useful.

Cardapio is a simple menu for the GNOME desktop that comes with a lot of useful plugins. It can launch applications, run a command, pin items, search through your Firefox bookmarks or Ubuntu Software Center, includes a file search and full text search and more.

After getting a Docky helper two weeks ago, an update today brings a Cardapio Avant Window Navigator applet too so you can finally use Cardapio like any other AWN applet (it was previously possible to use Cardapio in AWN by using a small "hack").

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cardapio-team/unstable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cardapio cardapio-awn

If you've already had Cardapio installed, make sure to upgrade to the latest version before installing the AWN applet.

Cardapio, one of the best main menu applets available for Linux has just been updated, bringing some very cool new features:

(Cardapio Gnome panel applet - minimode)

Minimode is a new option to reduce the size of the Cardapio main window which saves a lot of space, very useful for netbooks (but not only).

(Cardapio running as a Docky Helper)

Docky Helper: clicking the anchor icon in Docky will open Cardapio.

The latest Cardapio 0.9.132 was released earlier today, bringing a system menu - something a lot of us were missing in Cardapio. The new version also comes with some new web search plugins for Bing, Yahoo, Wikipedia and Youtube.

Another week, another poll. This time you can vote for the best Linux (main) menu. I didn't include all the menus out there in the poll, but there are more options than we usually use for our polls. The contenders are: MintMenu, Lancelot, Main Menu (the main GNOME menu), Slab, Menu bar (the Ubuntu default menu), Kickoff, USP (Ubuntu System Panel), GnoMenu, K-Menu and Cardapio.

As usual, you can vote for something not among the default options by choosing "other" and then entering your answer.