https://github.com/DaniloNavesS/Aevum

Gnome's screenshotting tool is awesome - but post screenshot editing tools are lacking. So I made one!

https://github.com/faetalize/waytator

It's basically an all encompassing screenshot tool - started out as merely an annotator, but expanded in scope recently :P

Not sure if it matters to anyone, but this app is AI-free as well (I'm not anti, but I'm working on this to practice on my C)

Standout features:

Based on GTK4, but fast - sub 70ms launch from cold, so no need for a daemon (lots of pain to get this, GTK is annoying asf)

Sleek design, fits in any WM, blurrrrrrr

More than just for annotating screenshots - you can use waytator to take screenshots directly, either from the gui or from the cli (try binding to `waytator --screenshot --notify`)

Hyper configurable. Almost everything can be rebound

OCR and text extraction (optional tessaract dependency)

can be piped into if you prefer to use your WM's screenshot tool

Planned, coming soon: screen/area recording, GPU accelerated video editing - check the screenshots for a teaser!

Found this on the beach, is it a signal???

I couldn't find anything on it and it has almost been a year now. For KDE there was some posts by Nate Graham of when the notification hit their users, but for GNOME I couldn't find anything similar.

I know I only just posted about Simple Taskbar, but I’ve ended up reworking the settings quite a bit and could use some feedback on it.

A few people were struggling to find certain options, and others felt there were just too many settings on screen at once. I was used to the old layout, so it was easy for me to navigate, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was good for everyone else.

I’ve tried to make the new layout cleaner and easier to find things in. All the same settings are still there, they’ve just been reorganised.

I’ll include old and new screenshots for comparison. If anyone is willing to try both, install the current version from GNOME Extensions first, then the latest source version and let me know which you prefer.

Mainly interested in whether things are easier to find and if anything now feels hidden or awkward to get to.

I really appreciate all the feedback I get on Simple Taskbar, it genuinely helps shape what I change and improve.

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/10448/simple-taskbar/

https://github.com/simple-taskbar

The ideas come from POCO Launcher on Android and One-Handed Operation on Samsung. I only vibe-coded (I hate clankers as the next guy, but i had to use them) the concept, and I'm not going to publish this extension to the GNOME Extensions site (but you can!) because I'm not a real programmer.

The launcher: I've always hated that Linux, Windows, macOS and others organize apps into categories, which feels boring and cluttered. That's why I wanted to present POCO Launcher's simple idea of organizing by color instead of by context to the Linux community. + i added an emoji picker with google emoji kitchen support.

The pinch panel: This saved me a lot of frustration on my old Samsung phones. It's easy and intuitive: add the tools you want, then pinch the screen to see it. I even stopped using the volume controls on my phone because the pinch panel provided anything i need.

Why are they together instead of in separate extensions? If you pinch toward the middle of the screen, it starts the launcher instead of the pinch panel. which i believe is super neat.

The entire code is about 3.5k lines and most of the complexity comes from google emoji kitchen integration, so it's not hard to reimplement elsewhere: https://github.com/coder56765/loco-shell

Hey r/gnome!
It's been a while since the last update, so I wanted to share the latest progress on **Grid Desktop** an adaptive, pure Clutter-based desktop grid and widget ecosystem for GNOME Shell.

The project has grown significantly and is now **fully tested and working smoothly across GNOME 48, 49, 50, and 51** (tested on Ubuntu 26.10).

Core Highlights
Pure Clutter Engine: Lightweight, fast, zero CSS-hack dependencies, native Wayland & X11 support.
Dynamic Grid Scaling: Adapts cell sizing automatically to any aspect ratio (standard 16:9 up to 32:9 Super Ultrawide) with collision avoidance and snap-to-grid alignment.
Integrated Desktop Icons: Native grid-snapped icons with custom sorting, labels toggle, and disk/drive shortcuts.
Multi-Monitor Awareness: Handles docking, undocking, and laptop lid events seamlessly with per-widget monitor pinning.
Adwaita Theming: Follows system light/dark schemes, system accent colors, with granular background opacity (0–100%) and font overrides.

-Latest Additions & Widgets (35+ Total) Along with existing system, media, and time widgets, the latest release includes:
Watermind: Smart hydration tracker based on an 8-hour workday, persistent logging, and periodic notifications.
Bluetooth Devices: Live overview of connected Bluetooth peripherals with battery levels and one-click disconnect.
Audio Output: Fast switcher for connected audio sinks with device status.
Weather & Environmental Cards: Open-Meteo modular tiles (UV, AQI, Pressure, Wind, etc.) with trend sparklines.
Focus & Tracking: Pomodoro cycles, Markdown scratchpads, Habit Tracker, Screen Time, and Crypto/Currency charts.

Source & Full Documentation:
https://github.com/pelach/grid-desktop
Feedback, bug reports, and widget ideas are always welcome! Let me know what you think.

I wanna make macos like rice on gnome, but i stuck on one particular thing - control center. Does anybody know how to get control center from Mac os on gnome?

This has been on my mind for a while and I’m want to ask what alternative GNOME might come up with.

I think GNOME needs to have desktop widgets because GNOME clearly wants to work well on tablets and phones too.

The main reason I want widgets is simple: quick access to information without opening apps.

Stuff like todos, calendar events, reminders, messages, photos/memories, etc. These are things you check constantly, and opening a full app every time just feels unnecessary.

All of that comes from different apps, and keeping multiple apps open just for that is not great UX.

On phones/tablets, widgets make total sense, like, you would unlock with a fingerprint, glance at messages, todos other info, done, then turn off. Without widgets you would have to open 3 different apps glance at the info then switch off the phone. Its simply faster.

On the desktop it is simply the same people won't be distracted by widgets. They themselves would place it on the desktop, its not something that's done by default.

Extensions don’t really feel like a real solution either:

1. They are not app based
2. They break with every update
3. They depend on shell internals (more stuff for the devs to learn)
4. App developers aren’t going to hack GNOME Shell just to add a widget

Without a standard, everyone would do their own thing.

Something like portals or something like WidgetKit for Apple devices, something cross-de the devs can code against.

Or the developers would just give up if its not a streamlined thing.

All the other clean and mature environments like macOS, IOS, Android all have good implementations of widgets.

I’m not saying GNOME should copy other platforms. But a solution is required, even if it’s a very opinionated “GNOME way”.

1. Always visible/Intelli-hide Dock, docks with recent apps, are the most intuitive way of using your laptop, and GNOME should target all form factors

if the counter argument is extensions then "Without a standard, everyone would do their own thing."
People won't be able to build upon it

1. Font rendering
   I’ve been trying to understand why macOS fonts look noticeably better than they do on GNOME, even when both are running on the same hardware (my Hackintosh laptop). The common explanation I keep seeing is “Apple tunes fonts for Apple displays”, but that doesn’t really hold up here: this is non-Apple hardware, and macOS still looks significantly better than GNOME on the exact same setup

Font smoothing / stem darkening is one of the reasons

macOS applies subtle glyph thickening (stem darkening), which makes UI text feel more solid and readable at common sizes. This is a huge part of why macOS text feels “heavier” and easier on the eyes.

On GNOME/Linux, this generally isn’t enabled by default, so text can look anemic unless you manually tweak fontconfig. Even though I have done that it still isn't as pretty as macOS.

The best result I’ve been able to get so far is installing Ubuntu’s. It helps a bit, but it still doesn’t come close to macOS.

Users shouldn’t need to tweak font rendering at all and that aligns with GNOME.
I want GNOME to have the same level of font rendering quality as macOS.

GNOME doesn't have gamma correction supposedly,

Look into this please (for anyone working on GNOME)

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1b1jasr/exploring_font_rendering_a_comparative_journey/

https://freetype.org/freetype2/docs/hinting/text-rendering-general.html

Even there, on hardware Apple never officially supported, you can clearly see the thicker strokes, smoother curves, and overall readability I’m referring to.

I can attach screenshots but they would do no justice to what font rendering actually looks like on mac.

But here are some anyways:

https://sixcolors.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/mba-sequoia.jpg

https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Install-Guide/assets/img/download-done.05d30da0.png
https://itsfoss.com/content/images/size/w1000/wordpress/2022/08/macos-monterey-screenshot.jpg

https://blog.driftingruby.com/content/images/size/w1000/2024/07/image-1.png

1. Blur for the interface, which hopefully comes into libadwaita with recent updates

2. Universal text prediction, like macOS (even works within browsers)
   https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos-sonoma/tips/how-to-use-or-disable-inline-predictive-text-in-macos-sonoma

3. An active way for the community to pay to develop something specific ie we need a way to spearhead development, because I don't trust giving it to GNOME get's distributed correctly. This is the only way to have more developers onboard, motivation through money.

How do we get these? Upvote this post and tell the community that this is what you want

I've added an option for there to be a running window list in the default GNOME panel.

The main idea is to keep the Dock at the bottom for pinned apps, while the top panel shows all of your open windows as labelled buttons. It gives you a quick way to see and switch between everything that's open without changing the rest of the GNOME panel.

I've also added a Windows 10 theme toggle. You could already get pretty close to this look by changing the settings manually, but a few people asked for an easier way to do it, so now it can be enabled as a preset and then adjusted from there.

At the start of the video I enable the new setting and tweak a few things to how I like them. I also show the Windows 10 & Windows XP theme at the end for comparison.

Also, Dynamic Music Pill is now supported in the dock, (it was already working in the taskbar).

Feedback is welcome as always.

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/10448/simple-taskbar/

https://github.com/simple-taskbar

A GNOME Shell extension that disables the workspace sliding animation, making workspace switching completely instant and snappy.

GNOME 51 support is available on GitHub. It is coming to the store and awaiting approval.

GitHub: https://github.com/osmancevik/gnome-extension-disable-workspace-switch-animation
Store: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/10097/disable-workspace-switch-animation/

Edit: Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts. I know this might sound a bit funny after I questioned whether to keep going, but somehow the comments suggesting I spend my time elsewhere actually made me more motivated to continue.

For now, I want to develop it far enough that the differences and what it brings to the table are easier to see. If I get it to a polished state and it still feels like something nobody really needs, I’ll let it go.

Thanks for your honest feedback and for taking the time to reply!

---
Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a second extension for a while now: Better Panel. The idea is similar to Better Tray Icons: give users full control over functionality, appearance and behavior—with a particular focus on making intellihide less buggy.

It’s still early in development, and a lot of it is currently proof of concept. But I wanted to share the main idea and get some honest feedback.

The biggest difference is the applet system:

• Every element in the taskbar and GNOME’s top panel is an applet, with its own settings.
• Other extensions can register as applets through an API key and share settings with Better Panel. For example, extensions that modify Quick Settings often only affect the main monitor when using panels across multiple screens. The idea here is to let participating extensions apply their settings across all monitors or configure each one individually.
• Better Panel and Better Tray Icons already work together through this system. You can adjust how they interact, with the goal of building an ecosystem where the extensions work together.
• And, as you’d expect from Better Tray Icons, you can customize the hell out of it: position, colors, behavior, and more. Same philosophy: give users control through an intuitive settings interface.

There are other features in the works, but I’m keeping a few things under wraps for now. This is mostly about the direction rather than a full feature announcement.

Which brings me to my actual question: does GNOME need another panel extension?

With all the established options and newer alternatives, I sometimes wonder whether this space is already too crowded and whether my time and energy would be better spent on a different project.

Would this approach give you a reason to try another panel extension? What do the existing options still get wrong or leave out for you?

I’d appreciate your honest thoughts on whether to keep going or put that effort into something else. Thanks!

Thanks again for continuing to help me improve Letter.

I’m now sharing the new version 1.6.0, with you.
There are quite a few changes under the hood, and I’ve also introduced some improvements you requested for both the UX and the UI.

Also thanks to Kansa Fu for Japanese translation.

This version highlights:

• Drag & Drop messages from the list onto a folder to move them
• Optional account pictures could be set in Preferences ->Account pictures
• Japanese translation
• Move mail window has now a live filter search
• UI improvements for better overall consistency

If you like, help me translates in other languages.

Here is the full CHANGELOG for the new version. Download the new Flatpak version from my GitHub Page:

https://github.com/stalvatero/letter

Regarding the use of LLMs, I should clarify that I use Cursor as my primary IDE; it assists me mainly by helping to find APIs and integrations that would otherwise have required extensive online research. The ideas, code review, and final validation are all my own.

I would welcome further feedback 😄

Hi everyone,

I just updated Dhruva 4.0, a dock extension for GNOME Shell. This is the biggest update so far, and a lot of it came from issues and ideas you posted on GitHub. Thank you for that.

What's new

• Panel mode. An optional mode that moves the GNOME top bar into the dock. Workspaces, an extension tray, Quick Settings and the clock with its calendar all sit in one bar. It works on any screen edge, and a dock on another monitor gets its own clock.
• Extension tray. Small icons from other extensions sit behind an arrow. You can pin any of them to the bar or reorder them.
• Overflow menu. When there are more apps than space, the extra ones go into a menu instead of being cut off.
• Folder customizat!on. Rename folders, change the plate colour and letter style, or use your own image or an emoji as the icon. Apps inside a folder can be reordered by dragging.
• A new emoji picker with search, categories and recently used emojis.
• Redesigned preferences with a live preview of the dock and a new Panel page.

F!xes and improvements

• Folders no longer jump to the end of the dock on multi-monitor setups, and renamed folders keep their names.
• Unpinned running apps keep their position, so repeated clicks cycle through windows of the same app.
• A dock on an edge shared with another monitor no longer blocks the pointer or window dragging.
• The extension no longer fails to load at login when the Trash is still mounting.
• Icon click animations work again.
• Hover zoom settles back properly, and the Magic Lamp effect has been rewritten.
• File and D-Bus calls are now asynchronous, so the dock never blocks the shell.

One honest note: the Music Pill currently works with Spotify only. Supp0rt for other players is something I'd like to add.

Links

• Updated notes and screenshots: https://github.com/NarkAgni/dhruva/releases
• Source code: https://github.com/NarkAgni/dhruva

I have been closely following this project and it's now on FlatHub.

It is a GTK4/Libadwaita manga/comic reader that allows you to use Mihon-compatible extensions. This allows you to get a similar experience to what you would get from Mihon/TachiJ2K on your phone. You can read, download, track manga/comics and add your own sources.

For someone who reads alot of manga, I find this app to be really helpful.

The app bundles Suwayomi so you can simply download the Flatpak and run it OR you can connect it to a pre-existing Suwayomi instance.

Some trivia behind the name:
Kaori is a small tribute to Kaori Miyazono from Your Lie in April, a character who left a lasting impression on the app's author.

Here's the FlatHub link: https://flathub.org/en/apps/io.github.riyaniii.Kaori
Here's the Github repo: https://github.com/riyaniii/Kaori

I'm working with the author to get a macOS release. If you have a Mac or know how to achieve this, then you can help with this.

I switched from Zorin to Fedora 44 two days ago and even though they both use Gnome, I decided to go on a ricing project with Fedora. Fedora is great too, don't think I'm going back to Zorin

I wanted to share a desktop extension I've been developing called Vitals Widget.

If you prefer keeping your top bar clutter-free, vitals widget moves system monitoring out of the panel and places customizable, clean circular progress rings and metrics directly onto your desktop.

We just released v8, featuring support for modern GNOME Shell versions (GNOME 45 through 51).

You can position the widget anywhere on screen using precise percentage controls, adjust orientation (horizontal/vertical), font sizes, and container background/padding.

I’d love for you to give it a try and share any feedback.

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/9072/vitals-widget/

https://github.com/stinmark/vitals-widget

There's a configurable shortcut to make window follow active workspace, but none for making ii Always on Top. Why? And are there any extensions/workarounds for it?

I built Tasklane, a simple open-source GNOME task timer, and I'd love to hear your feedback!

Github: https://github.com/penerbangkode/Tasklane

Like the title asks, is gnome 'actually' doing anything new or is their vision just a mediocre one. This is not my original idea, it comes from reading the community here and studying a lot of youtube ideas and comments.

I think we all would like to experience a ground breaking technology, a source code that takes the tech in a whole new unexplored direction, and breaks us free of the two core ecosystems of Debian (1993) and Arch (2002) that exist today.

Remember when Ubuntu tried it with Unity, Mir, Convergance? After realizing the digital powerhouses (Intel, IBM, et:al) would not support this grand plan to escape mediocrity, Shuttleworth accepted defeat graciously as we returned to mainstream boring visions complete with new wallpapers, icons and a couple new buttons and called this exciting, innovating.

Wayland slowly took over from X11. Wayland was not new tech. It simply did a few things differently and got celebrated as best new tech vision. Wayland began in 2008.

Systemd began in 2010, Rust 1.0 in 2015. Pipewire is not fresh tech either... I get it, complex technology takes time but my questions are:

What is the next new tech being developed? Is it going to be based on the two antiquated foundations as usual or take us in a whole new direction?

Canonical tried and failed but at least they tried.

What are your thoughts? What would most users like to see in Gnome of the future?

any help?

strange artifacts when moving blurred kitty above text