Comment 3 for bug 333389

Well, you don't need to have window-picker-applet running to make the launcher work. I just assumed you were using window-picker-applet. The problem is the there is a level of focus-loss-prevention built in to the window managers which makes some dialogs (and sometimes main windows) open without focus. In other cases, it's a matter of milliseconds where the window manger thinks that you've activated another window in the time the application registered and showed its own window, and therefore the WM doesn't bring the new window to the front.

The reason window-picker-applet fixes this is that it tries to replicate the behaviour of Matchbox Window Manager, in that every new window should be given focus (which works well for netbooks, where it doesn't help to have windows opening behind other windows). Ideally this should be a window-manager option (and it is in Compiz), but window-picker-applet is meant to work across all wms, and therefore implements this behaviour itself.

That said, the launcher has code to do the same and obviously it isn't working so I'm marking this as confirmed setting the milestone for 1.2.0.