10+ GNOME Tips & Tricks that make your life easier!

[@denisstpierre7140]

Nicely done short, sweet and useful! Thank You

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Thanks for the positive feedback!

[@rupe82]

Thanks! The crtl+alt+arrow keys is exactly what I was looking for. I've been trying different distros and desktop environments and Gnome is most interesting to use coming from Windows because it's so different.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Glad you found the video helpful. I definitely agree that being a completely different experience is both interesting, and sometimes makes it easier to learn, since you don’t have any preconceived notions or expectations of what it will be like. I’ve personally come to love GNOME over the years (though I truly enjoy the flexibility of KDE Plasma as well).

[@jakobw135]

Kudos on this video! 👍 Do Tweaks and Extensions include things like: changing the background or wallpaper on the Overview and Workspaces environments? Can you make transparent and hide/reveal the Dock at the bottom as well as the Toolbar on top?

[@Kensownvids]

Excellent tips. Gnome on Fedora is an excellent choice.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Fedora / GNOME is currently my go-to. It’s such a cohesive and up-to-date experience that just works so well!

[@rmcellig]

Excellent video!! What gnome distros would you recommend? Which one do you use? Right now I'm using lmde. I like debian.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

LMDE is a good choice (you installed GNOME in it?) While not Debian-based, I’ve been using (and recommend) Fedora. These days, it’s easy to install third-party drivers and repositories if desired, and it offers a really cohesive and up-to-date GNOME experience in my opinion.

[@rmcellig]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel it's Linux mint cinammon with debian. I'll try Fedora again. At least it's vanilla gnome which I like and then if I need any extensions they are easy to install. Fedora is a wonderful distro!! What do you like about it? Thanks again!! 🙂

[@NetScalerTrainer]

Finally now I know how to get a windows like panel back!

[@tanmaypatel4152]

It was fun talking to you mate! Great work👍

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Thank you! Always appreciate you showing up!

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Considering I can’t yet post community questions (not until 1,000 subs) I’m hoping to get your thoughts on something regarding the future of the channel. I’m wondering if you have any thoughts about the type of content that would serve people the best. Do you like / find helpful the distribution reviews or software exploration / tutorials? Based on your comments, Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m guessing you’re a fairly regular Linux user, so I suspect videos about how / why to use Linux over something else might not be particularly interesting to you? Are there any other topics or types of videos you would be interested in seeing in the future? Any other feedback?

[@tanmaypatel4152]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel Hey man! Thank you for asking. I am really sorry but it's getting pretty late in my country and I am quite busy at this moment. I won't be able to suggest something today but I will surely get back to you tomorrow! Glad you asked :)

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

No worries; take your time! And thank you for your support and encouragement thus far.

[@tanmaypatel4152]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel Hey buddy, I love those kind of videos where the person tries a distro or a DE etc for a week or a month and gives a detailed review on that. Like "The Linux Cast". And yeah videos like why to switch from windows to linux are irrelevant to me now. Cheers :)

[@cybernit3]

ddterm (drop down) extension is nice just press F12 and have terminal. 1 Question how do you have unique background images for different workspaces? I am using Gnome 47 btw, thanks.

[@sfwnsftmusic]

Thanks, great video.

[@anatolijbondarenko7116]

Please add Google documents, voice dialing, night theme with warm colors and 3-D live wallpapers. Thank you!

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Choice of accent colour should be coming to GNOME fairly soon (probably 43 or 44) so that would allow you to get rid of the blue for something warmer. Can’t wait!

[@neotwenty-nineBzH]

One of the best explanations of how to use gnome correctly

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed!

[@jakobw135]

P S. By changing the background or wallpaper in my comment below - I meant independently in each workspace and overview.

[@comentario-mk]

Great video! Thanks!

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Glad you liked it!

[@kevingary7018]

So many extensions, and so little time to try them out.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Very true!

[@human3504]

Ope, you betcha time to watch the video. What if I do not have a super key (1:33)? it does not exist like onions on a pizza. When I use to run the ol penguin go getter I never seen web search results appear there 2:08. So, I noticed straight away like a hot pocket out of the oven that you are running Fedora but wait this is a reason why I said this. It may be just Gnome and I just used the flavored tea version but when I used it I had the option of it appearing when I got near the edges but anyways Debian>Fedora heh heh. Since I know a lot of people who still run Linux have multiple monitors It might be quicker for those people just to drag it to that monitor instead of that way said at 3:00. This is just my observation since some people prioritize efficiency but your way works too. Oh my I see your location on clocks. So, I have your name, your distribution and location this sounds like you are inviting your fans for a meetup. Did I hear human interface at 5:12? I thought any visible interface wouldn't be considered human? I do enjoy Gnome Twerks its quite bopping if I says so myself. Now for pointer location I prefer the version that talks to you where it is you can have it yell if you wanted. So, for the minimize and maximum button I feel Gnome is pushing more towards developers and such for workflow maybe that is why they turned it off by default. Whoa there, did I just witness a jump cut for the downloading of Extension but why? it is ok if you have slow internet we won't judge. I could be misremembering but I vaguely remembering when I installed tweaks it also installed Extensions maybe I am misremembering or its only a terminal thing. Well I beg to bark that Dash to Panel is like Windows I say its more like Solus Budgie instead of Windows also the Windows power button is in a drop up aka inside the Windows button not the corner :). Great video even though I am waiting for a a KDE version of this video that may be my cup of water even if I do not run Linux anymore but I still like seeing both vastly popular environments.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Thanks for the comment. I’m not personally aware of any modern keyboards that don’t have a super key. I’m pretty sure everything since the mid to late 90s does. If not, many distros have an alternate shortcut or one could be assigned in keyboard shortcuts settings. I don’t recall whether Firefox shows an option to search the web in the Activities Overview, but the GNOME Web browser will, and other apps can integrate search results in there as well. Pretty much all distros using GNOME have the ability to display the overview when you put your mouse pointer in the top left corner. Some distros disable it by default; others (and vanilla GNOME itself) have it enabled. In GNOME 41 and later, you can change this behaviour in Settings > Multitasking (in prior versions of GNOME, you would need to use the GNOME Tweak Tool). With dragging apps to a specific workspace, some users might find it quicker to just drag the icon to the desired workspace instead of clicking to open it, waiting for the window to appear, then dragging the window. Personal preference though. Oh, yes; I didn’t even consider my location being shown in Clocks. Sure, you have my first name and general city, which has millions of people, and probably hundreds if not thousands with my name. 😀 Unfortunately, no meet-up planned for the fans. GNOME’s Human Interface Guidelines are the standards they’ve created for GNOME-style apps so that they all look and function congruently. All those apps that have the header bar with buttons like the search magnifying glass or the three-lined menu drop down are using the human interface guidelines. GNOME Tweaks really IS great! Though more and more of its settings are either being moved into the official Settings or are becoming obsolete as GNOME evolves. The pointer location setting is actually available in the native accessibility settings now; I hadn’t noticed that when making this video. I haven’t heard of a system that speak’s the pointer’s location. Does it say like “pointer near top right” or does it give coordinates or something? I think GNOME devs have specific reasons for not including minimize / maximize by default (you can maximize by double-clicking the title bar and they feel there’s really no need to minimize as you’d just move to a different workspace to do a different type of task). It’s definitely an unconventional way of doing things, and not everyone’s cup of tea, but after intentionally trying to work that way for a while, I’ve at least found it useable. I think I made a couple cuts during the extension part as I suddenly got a bad case of the hiccups. I kept having to redo parts of the recording because of it. Extensions used to be managed through Tweaks, but then the GNOME devs created an official extensions app (which looks a bit nicer) so the duplicate functionality was removed from the Tweaks tool. Sure, Dash to Panel does have a similar look to Solus / Budgie’s panel. I simply meant that it creates the same general layout and workflow as Windows (very observant point about the location of the power options). I do plan on doing a KDE edition at some point, but I haven’t used Igor quite some time, so I’ll need to familiarize myself with its latest features and the “ins and outs” of it. Thanks again for the feedback and I’m glad you enjoyed watching!

[@wiz3905]

my internet connection keeps cutting off so the system doesn't complete updating. Have to try again late at night

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Does that happen specifically on GNOME or a certain distribution?

[@davidwayne9982]

GREAT JOB on fhe video... even a dumb hillbilly like me can understand how this works by watching you. I got all confused listening to some of the "ramblers" and talkers try to explain these things. :) THANKS.

[@philipekema4315]

Is there a good auto tiling extension, like pop os?

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

The actual extension used in Pop!_OS is called Pop Shell. I thought it was possible to get on other distros, but I’m having trouble finding it. There are numerous extensions that enable “manual” tiling / snapping via keyboard shortcuts (Rectangle and Awesome Tiles to name a couple), but I realize that might not be quite what you’re looking for.

[@1987alejandroivan]

One of the reasons I don’t like or use GNOME is that “double super key” stuff. I can’t find the first super key’s screen useful. I’d rather see only ONE screen with the spaces on top and apps at the bottom.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

That’s a fair point. I’m actually surprised that there doesn’t seem to be an extension for that sort of functionality.

[@brads2041]

My biggest concern using extensions is them breaking on an update. Or just breaking something period. Is that a concern? I'm using Fedora with Gnome and a small number of extensions. Not bad though I like kde plasma a bit more (I also have a machine with Fedora KDE)

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Extensions breaking from normal updates are unlikely. The main concern is when there’s a new GNOME version (e.g 41 to 42) all extensions have to be updated to be compatible. In most cases, it’s just the dev checking to make sure it still runs then updating the version, but it does mean that when a new GNOME first comes out, a few extensions may not be updated for it yet, meaning they may not work until they’re updated. If you’re sticking with official GNOME versions as they’re released through distro updates, most extensions will typically be updated by the time you get it. Testing pre-release / beta builds of GNOME before official release though, will mean most of your extensions won’t yet work with it. All in all, I wouldn’t be too concerned so long as you’re willing to be a little patient for them to be updated when there’s a new GNOME release. P.S: Fedora for the win!

[@brads2041]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel I'm not using very many. I think a couple, above what appear to be a couple preinstalled. I kinda like the vanilla Gnome that Fedora uses. I don't need much more mods

[@jaunie8217]

Is there a live update website as a desktop wallpaper?

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

I’m not aware of a current way to do this. There is an older app call Wallch that I believe has this functionality, but I don’t think it’s being maintained anymore so I’m not sure how easy it would be to get that working. On a similar note, gnome-look.org does has collections of live wallpapers.

[@jaunie8217]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel ah I see. I was looking into having a custom Google sheet dashboard as my wallpaper... Thanks though! I guess I'll go with kde for now.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

That’s a pretty cool use case. I hadn’t considered using a live website background as a launch point for documents.

[@two_motion]

The second half was basically how to make Ubuntu Gnome.

[@maxim9733]

I hate GNOME for many reasons, including their decision to remove minimize/maximize and hide buttons from window, including their decision to remove anything that tweaking and customizing smth in your GNOME system (and that tweaks also with the highest chance will be broken completely after another one system update in the GNOME system). maybe KDE Plasma has much less money and investors, maybe KDE does not gain promotes from big tech like Red Hat, Canonical, Microsoft, but.... KDE Plasma at least allow end users do what they want in the context of tweaking customizing, in the context of gaining BASE FUNCTIONALITY OF WINDOW SYSTEM :D

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Those are fair points. GNOME’s default layout is definitely an acquired taste-one that many people don’t like. Extensions help, but as you said, they often break with new GNOME versions. I have found the Extension Manager app to be really useful though. Unlike the standard Extensions app, it lets you download and install new extensions (and view compatibility) right from the app without the need to use the Extensions website.

[@PrinterMan1956]

Now if only gnome would stop tripping over itself and screwing everything up. Still horrible drag and drop with Wayland. Plasma 6 got it right why not gnome?

[@paulg3336]

First rule of GNOME: Never approach GNOME with a mouse - go look for a more primitive DE

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Like Enlightenment? 🙂

[@folksurvival]

But keyboard driven interfaces and command lines are older than mouse driven interfaces and GUIs. So how is it more "primitive" to use the mouse?

[@paulg3336]

@@folksurvival Primitive as in crude. Here's an example: I was working with a guy that was showing me how to adjust an analyser with its user interface. Every cell he needed to adjust in a 8 x 12 grid , he would search for visually and click on with the mouse cursor. I showed him that you can hit F10 key and enter the grid co-ordinate (which was indicated in text) in the text box i.e. C8 or E11 . No searching needed . The mouse is always crude.

[@folksurvival]

@@paulg3336 "The mouse is always crude." False.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

It is certainly an interesting discussion to be had. Many tasks CAN be done faster via the keyboard once someone is familiar with how to complete them. But the mouse does offer a level of discoverability and “straightforward discovery” for someone that may not be familiar with a specific interface or platform.

[@Unixgreybeard]

The g is silent. Killin me bruh

[@MrTon4eff]

Omitting Alt+Shift (left AND right) for switching keyboard layouts is unforgivable for gnome. 👎👎👎

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Thanks for pointing that one out! I actually can’t believe I forgot about it; as a Dvorak layout user myself, I often have to switch between it and QWERTY either for specific apps / games or whenever someone else needs to use the PC real quick.

[@MrTon4eff]

​@@PlanetLinuxChannel Actually there is a workaround, but it doesn't work simultaneously for left and right keys and it's SLO-OW. Unfortunately I'm forced to use gnome for a 6 months now, because it's the only one DE (with wayland) which supports my 4K displays more or less with fractional scaling. :(. I curse every time when I have to switch between layouts or between apps. There is no way a normal human to get used to this. And trust me I asked a lot of actual people (not in virtual space) if they like gnome - still NO ONE. :)

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

I’m pretty sure that fractional scaling works on my ultra-wide almost-4K monitor (3840x1600), but it’s been a while since I’ve used Plasma.

[@MrTon4eff]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel Thank you for your answers! With my 3840x2160@60 the gnome 43 is the ONLY one which works flawlessly. Gnome 44 is broken. Everything else (linux) works only at 3840x2160@30. :( I tried everything - drivers, kernels, window managers, de's... So I'm stuck with gnome for now... Yes, I know that it can be kind of customized with extensions, but that's a minefield for a future update breakage - been there done that... :) I don't hate gnome though... But I hate when somebody starts to explain to everyone how convenient, intuitive and easy to use DE it is, when actually he shows the opposite. I think that they make it that way on purpose. Why they would omit the alt+shift for example? :D No offense intended, your video is actually one of the few actually useful ones on gnome topic...

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

That’s a good point. Perhaps I could make a follow-up sometime with additional tips, but to be honest, I’ve sort of moved on from GNOME for the time being. I do personally like the consistent appearance (human interface guidelines) that they strive for in their apps (not saying the actual guidelines are great-the apps often look pretty barebones) but I do admire the effort for consistency. But I’ve recently been far more interested in desktops that allow for more granular customization (without the need for extensions and therefore breakage as you mentioned!)

[@zorabixun]

Ubuntu and Gnome is a rubbish 1.2 GB RAM usage 🙉 ..... You promote the key shortcuts, it will be still rubbish overweight distro 😁😝 If you want real key management distro, go to any distro with i3 desktop .. it is the superior management, 350 MB of RAM Ubuntu should be removed to not waist our work time

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

i3 is really great, especially for keyboard use, but as far as an out-of-the-box user experience goes, some users may not want to take the time to work with it to get it set up how they want. GNOME IS fairly heavy on resources compared to other desktops, but it does offer a lot of niceties. And with most current computers coming with at least 8 GB of RAM, a lot of users don’t feel a negative impact from ~1.2 GB being used.

[@zorabixun]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel , yes you are right, the present CPU is fast, but it is better to use the power for calculations, reactions, software starting, general performance, etc. Yes, we need to learn keyboard combinations of i3, but the same is with Gnome keys .... As of performance, when you do work on for example Mint Xfce, the system flights 🌞 With Gnome the system's reaction is with visible gaps, as if the system think for a fraction of second to make an action. Of course it is not much, but you can feel it. I am not against Gnome, but i like the practical side of our work.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

That’s certainly a fair point.

[@folksurvival]

@@zorabixun CPU and RAM are two different things.

[@nawantabahpangestu1973]

I3 and Sway are not desktops but Window Manager.

[@TheLazyLemmon]

#1 gnome tip: use xfce instead

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

GNOME certainly isn’t right for everyone. XFCE is pretty nice: lightweight, customizable and fairly straightforward to learn and use.

[@aaRept]

Thank you for making this video! I've been using GNOME for a couple of months now and I still found some useful tips I did not know about! Does the "AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support" work well on GNOME 44?

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Glad you found it helpful! I can't personally speak to how well the extension works on GNOME 44, though I've used it on 43. Its GNOME Extensions page does show that it supports 44, so I do believe it should work.