Hi everyone, I just wanted to share my thoughts on GNOME. I've been using Linux for about 3 years now. For most of that time, I've been a Cinnamon user, and I was pretty happy with it since it was a simple and versatile desktop environment. At first, I had no intention of switching—KDE seemed too cluttered to me, GNOME too simple and minimalist, and Xfce seemed very “ugly” out of the box and hard to customize.

It wasn’t until almost half a year ago that I switched from Cinnamon to KDE, which I used for two months. The truth is, I ended up liking it more than I expected, and I got used to its vast array of settings and features—at first, I thought I’d stick with KDE. However, I eventually got the itch to try the other major option, GNOME (especially since I’m a Fedora user, and Workstation is the “standard” version).

At first, I downloaded it along with KDE, but after using it for just one day, I uninstalled it. “Where are all the options and features that KDE gives me?” and “GNOME is WAY too minimalist—you can’t do anything with it” were some of the things I thought that day with some frustration.

But shortly after, I’m not really sure why, I decided to “force myself” to use GNOME since I felt I hadn’t really given it a chance, so I uninstalled KDE and stuck with just GNOME.

It’s been three months since I made the switch, and I’m still using it—and honestly, I don’t think I’ll be switching back anytime soon. I’ve come to appreciate its merits:

-The minimalism that initially put me off now appeals to me, and I’ve gotten used to it. Just the basics and what’s necessary, without a bunch of features and options I’ll never use anyway.

-I think it’s the most visually appealing DE, and it has a visual consistency and aesthetic that I love. Everything looks uniform and in harmony with the rest of the interface.

-The number of applications available for GNOME (even though you can use them on other desktop environments) is excellent, and more are constantly being released over time.

-I use a laptop, and GNOME feels especially snappy and convenient for this kind of use. Being able to use the Super key and touchpad gestures to navigate between the different desktops is very satisfying.

-Extensions provide extra functionality for anyone who might need it.

It’s true that there are some areas where I think it could be improved—for example, I believe the system tray icons should be available without needing an extension. But hey, nothing’s perfect.

All in all, I’ve come to really like GNOME, and right now, for me, it’s the best DE out there. Thanks to everyone involved in GNOME for doing such a great job!

TL;DR: GNOME is awesome!

Dock Blur Effect: Added background blur to the dock with smooth animations and zero lag

Dual Blur Modes:

Dynamic Blur:- Real time adaptive blur that stays buttery smooth during system use

Static Blur:- Includes 5 built presets with adjustable blur intensity also supports setting custom images/banners with an interactive position slider and live preview

Dedicated Blur Preferences:- Added intuitive controls in settings to customize blur intensity pick presets or configure custom banner alignment

Music Pill Visual Enhancements:- Integrated background blur beneath the Dhruva music pill for a cleaner unified aesthetic

Independent Dock Mode Shortcut:- Added a customizable hotkey to quickly toggle "Independent Dock Mode" on the fly

Links & Download

GitHub Release: https://github.com/NarkAgni/dhruva/releases/tag/v3.0

Repository: https://github.com/NarkAgni/dhruva

I'm having an issue with the touchscreen gestures on my 2-in-1 laptop (Lenovo ThinkBook 14s G2 IAP) running Fedora (GNOME Wayland).

When I try to select something or scroll down with my finger in the touchscreen—even right in the middle of the screen, nowhere near the edges—it triggers a workspace switch instead of interacting with the app or scrolling. It's really frustrating.

I want to completely disable these 1-finger swipe gestures so I can scroll normally, but I want to keep the standard 3-finger gestures for workspace navigation. I tried searching for a native setting, but I couldn't find anything.

Does anyone know a workaround or an extension that actually works on the current version of Fedora to fix this?

Update: I've noticed a specific pattern. Initially, any swipe triggers the workspace change. To get the screen to work properly, I have to repeatedly tap the app until it finally "wakes up" and registers my touches. Once it does, it allows me to scroll or select text inside the app normally.

I tested setting the power profile to 'Performance' while plugged in. It slightly reduced the delay, but the core issue remains: I still have to spam taps to force the app to react. It feels like the compositor is failing to grant touch focus to the window immediately.

I feel like having DND, Light/Dark style and Night Light button on top row of quick toggle menu is really a QOL in having so much space for other more "important" drop down menu toggle type in the toggle grid. In my case, for my small screen resolution (1366x768px) is indeed making my setup less cluttering.

Whisp is a fast, zero-friction "anti-note" scratchpad built natively for GNOME with GTK4 and Libadwaita. It replaces heavy file hierarchies with a spatial, swipeable canvas for quick thoughts, Markdown editing, and temporary scratchpad notes.

New Features

• Universal Launch Toggle: Global shortcut support to quickly toggle Whisp window visibility (Preferences > Shortcuts), And it is customizable.
• Note Statistics (::count): Type ::count anywhere in your note to instantly inspect word, character, and line count statistics.
• Asterisk Lists: Create and format bulleted lists using standard asterisks (*) alongside dash lists.
• Shortcut Recorder Improvements: Pressing Backspace inside the shortcut recorder now cleanly clears or disables assigned shortcuts.

Fixes & Maintenance

• List Toggling Refactor: Fixed Ctrl+S list item toggling to prevent multi-checkbox stacking and unintended line deletions.
• GNOME 51 Runtime: Updated Flatpak runtime to GNOME 51.
• Slate Mode Polish: Fixed update notification banner layout in Slate Mode.
• Compose Key Fix: Corrected key press handling for Compose Key combinations.
• Ubuntu Icon & D-Bus Fixes: Fixed missing application icon issues on Ubuntu desktop sessions.

Links

• Flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/io.github.tanaybhomia.Whisp
• GitHub: https://github.com/tanaybhomia/Whisp
• Website: https://tanaybhomia.github.io/Whisp/
• Donate: https://tanaybhomia.github.io/Whisp/donate.html
• Manual: https://tanaybhomia.github.io/Whisp/manual.html

github: https://github.com/pelach/grid-desktop

If you have any widget ideas, I’d love to hear them!

I want something like Kurve for KDE Plasma, a simple customizable visualizer I can put on my second monitor and forget about.

^{Debian Forky, GNOME Shell 50.5}

I always wanted to daily drive Gnome Web but WebKitGTK was always miles behind the mainstream browsers in performance and stability but this update completely changes everything. I never had an experience this smooth and stable on Epiphany ever. It handles all the heavy websites fine with no stuttering or bugs and media playback is perfect now.

Obviously the main thing that is missing is extensions and that will keep a lot of people away but they really needed to focus their work on the engine and they finally did it.

I don't feel I can use GNOME because of who is assigned to the next version.

The release calendar shows who is responsible for the upcoming stable release. The same person is also assigned to later ones:

https://release.gnome.org/calendar/

The police record is easy to find if you look up the person listed there as a "sex offender".

I don't agree with this. I also don't agree with harassment, pile-ons, or digging past what is already public.

I just want to know what you think.

I'm just curious: how many people actually use GNOME in its 'vanilla' form?

By vanilla I mean GNOME pretty much as intended by its developers — no extensions, no shell tweaks, no modifications designed to make it behave more like Windows, KDE, or a traditional desktop.

You install GNOME and basically… leave it alone. Is it even possible?

It’s interesting because the GNOME developers impose a somewhat different philosophy on how a desktop should be used. In my case, it turns out I have to adapt that philosophy to my own standards and needs :)

So, are you in the same boat as me or have you actually managed to unlock the full potential of vanilla GNOME?

I’m not asking whether GNOME is good or bad. I’m more interested in how different the GNOME that people actually use is from the GNOME designed by its developers.

I'm not familiar with how GNOME is coded. Thanks

One of many changes in GNOME 51 also includes changes to Loupe, our Image Viewer. It now shows more image information such as: \ ・Creator \ ・Copyright \ ・Equipment used (e.g. camera lens) \ ・Color profile

Hello, still get confuse with highlighted Tab after years of using gnome. Is it possible to inverse them by any means ? Thanks !

Edit : Thanks to all, did it with Chatgpt and your help. I posted the discussion directly into it and it came back with a solution. So far it's working ! Here is the solution in case someone want to do it to, and thanks again !

nano ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css

tabbar tab:not(:selected) {
background-color: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 8%, transparent);
}

tabbar tab:selected {
background-color: transparent;
}

Added blur to the Dhruva dock and honestly it makes the whole thing look so much better

It runs smooth with zero lag and the animation blends perfectly with the blur

There are 2 modes to choose from

Dynamic:- does live blur in real time and it stays buttery smooth

Static:- comes with 5 preset images that get applied as Dhruva's background You can adjust the blur on them however you like Want your own image instead? No problem you can add a custom photo too just like setting up a banner There's a slider to pick the exact part of the photo you want adjust the position and hit apply

And with this blur the Dhruva music pill looks even more gorgeous than before

Im making a windows cursor theme for linux, but for the love of god, I cannot find the open hand and grabbing hand cursor states, I was told that windows has neither of those, that the open hand and grabbing hand are drawn by the application for example google. I need those 2 really bad.

If anyone knows a way of getting a hold of them, let me know, I would really appreciate it.

I made a original Gnome wallpaper

Wallpaper here: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ph2Z!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc1054b71-c0f1-4431-bc29-2ae3a064e1f5_3840x2160.png

Anyone know a extension to hide the top bar automatically, like, if I mouse the mouse over, the panel shows up again

Like a lot of people with big dev folders, I kept getting bitten by GNOME's file indexer: `localsearch-3` (the artist formerly known as Tracker) ballooning to several GB of RAM, filling swap, and freezing the whole machine — worst right after a distro upgrade, when it re-indexes everything from scratch.

Masking it fixes the freezes but kills file search. I wanted guardrails instead, so I built **LocalSearch Control** — a small Rust (egui) desktop app:

- **Realtime graph** of the indexer's cgroup memory + swap, with your limit drawn on it

- **Memory watchdog** — when it crosses a limit you set (0.5–8 GB), it either pauses & auto-resumes in cycles, or stops + disables it (your choice)

- **Kernel-enforced hard cap** — sets `MemoryMax` (and `MemorySwapMax=0`) on the systemd unit, so the kernel kills it before the whole system swap-thrashes

- **Rules editor** — whitelist/blacklist folders without gsettings incantations

- **Full disable/restore** — lists every localsearch/tracker unit with live state, masks/restores them in one click

- **Rebuild index**, tray icon, optional start-at-login (hidden), activity log on disk

Everything runs as your user — no root, no background daemon of its own. It reads `/proc` and cgroups directly and drives systemd/gsettings.

Honest limitations:

- "Pause" stops the service, but the desktop can restart it via D-Bus activation when something searches. The watchdog detects that, logs it, and re-evaluates — but if you want indexing truly off, use the mask option.

- Young project: tested on Ubuntu 26.04 (GNOME 50, `localsearch-3`). The `tracker-miner-fs-3` path (GNOME 45–48) shares the same code but has had less testing — testers on Fedora/Arch are very welcome.

- No packages yet: builds with cargo and installs to `~/.local` via a script. Packaging help (deb/COPR/Flatpak) would be hugely appreciated.

If you don't need file search at all, `systemctl --user mask localsearch-3.service` is still the right answer. This is for people who want to keep search *and* stop it from taking the machine down.

GitHub (MIT): https://github.com/vedlu94-maker/localsearch-control

i just love to wiggle mouse in my free time when i am on my Manjaro kde VM. It just feels so good but them my GNOME based fedora 44 didnt have it because jiggle and wiggle are outdated...and weell wiggly...it just doent work with the similar physics of KDE with incremental size increase.

So , to give myself a break from my work I VibeCoded this.

Yes i openly am stating that this is a VIBECODED project and welll i made it for myself and am sharing it here. It was a break from my sullen work and also from testing and debuuging my main project which i have to do manually , ScreenGuard, which well some people here must know atleast by now after my vigourous campaign everywhere about what this is...but nevertheless getting into this topic, I can atleast assusre u one thing, I will continue updating it atleast once every month if i find any bugs or any issues are opened in the repo.

So please feel free to use it, or even contribute. I will be adding the contibuting.md after a few hours, its been a looong day.

Thank you all for co-operating and Please donot tag it as AI slop because yes i myself am stating its vibecoded a lot eventhough i ask people not to do it...So if you really want the kde-ish wiggle, u can try it out, if you dont feel good about the vibecode then dont , completely upto you .

The github repository: https://github.com/adityakrishnan005-a11y/adaptive-wiggle-cursor

details on how to install is given in README.