Well, It’s a great time to get to know Gnome. Soon, millions of Ubuntu
users will be welcomed to the Gnome desktop environment instead
of Unity. So let’s dive into the world of Gnome extensions and have a
look at my top 3 must have extensions.
1.Dash to Dock
Gnome provides a rather clean desktop by default. Except for the top
panel, the desktop is literally empty. Unlike Unity, it does not provide
a launcher on the desktop, out of the box. This is done to facilitate
user customization.
The Unity-launcher thingy in Gnome is called the dash and it pops up
only when you invoke the activities overlay (Windows/ Super
button).
Using the extension Dash-to-dock, this dash can be turned into a dock.
The name is self-explanatory I guess. This extension not only brings
the dash to dock, but allows the user to apply a huge and flexible set of
customizations. Honestly speaking, Dash-to-dock is a beautiful piece of
software, the degree of customization it allows while being stupidly
simple, it’s marvelous. I mean the menu is so simple, you can start
customizing right in.
2.Alt-tab
I don’t even understand why this isn’t a default feature. The very
purpose of using different workspaces is to group different
applications that are running, into a group.
To be more organized and avoid distraction. When you
press alt+tab to switch applications, Gnome, by default,
shows all the applications running on all workspaces
and switches between them all.
Consider you are editing a video on Workspace 1, with
KDEnLive and VLC open and Firefox open in
Workspace 2.
Consider you are editing a video on Workspace 1, with
KDEnLive and VLC open and Firefox open in
Workspace 2.
Alternate tab corrects this issue and puts the whole
alt+tab thingy as it should be, allowing you to switch
between the applications running on your current
workspace only.
- Dynamic panel transparency
There are many shell themes and even extensions that
allow you to make the Gnome top panel transparent,
semi or completely. But once you launch an
application, the transparent top panel, displaying part
of the desktop wallpaper looks both distracting and
ugly. I said it.
Dynamic panel transparency is the extension that gets
what I am saying. Simply said, it makes your top panel
transparent when you're on the desktop, displaying
that gorgeous 4K wallpaper you’ve put.
Once you launch a fullscreen application, the top panel
smoothly regains a solid color. And vice versa. This
extension can be tuned according to user preferences
and has huge customization potential.
Gnome 3 kinda gets a bad rep because of the changes it
made since Gnome 2. But honestly, your Gnome can be
anything you want. You don’t like something? Well,
you can just change it into anything that you’ll like. See
that’s the power of extensions. Gnome extensions are
very powerful, they are not something that you put on
your desktop. They have the power to alter the very
working of your computer. So go ahead, own your PC.