I prefer application icons. Somewhat agree about the launcher though.
I'll cast a vote for the application icons. I would have a hard time remembering which number mapped to which application.
I might prefer having the launcher list at least the last application launched at all times, even if it's already on the button bar. When I am trying to switch rapidly back and forth between two applications (e.g. cut from field #1 of application A, paste in field #1 of application B, then repeat for fields #2, #3, etc.) I don't necessarily want to try to remember whether the last application I was in was on the button bar or not. I just want to go back to the last application I was running, whatever that was.
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