Making GNOME great with these plugins

Bring the best of Windows with the best of macOS, minus the Apple Tax or the BS

9 min readDec 12, 2024

When picking a desktop environment for Linux, you will find there are three types of people:

The ones who like the OS to stay away from their work
The ones who like the OS to organize their work
The ones who like the OS to be part of their work

GNOME clearly fits itself in the first group. Evidently clean and simple, the desktop is meant to give the application most of the screen possible, and let you move between workspaces. Customization is really minimal, only enabled by plugins, and apps are hidden in a drawer.

Evidently, some people consider that a hindrance. It’s not that GNOME becomes unusable for these people, but there are some conveniences that GNOME strips out for sake of making its point.

I’ve been working with GNOME through Bluefin, a Fedora Silverblue spin with amphetamines, that really makes the desktop environment more useful thanks to some included plugins, among other fixes.

Then I thought to put here the plugins I’ve used in the last year and share them for all GNOME users out there. Also, this works as a useful reminder of the plugins I use in case I need to reinstall them.

The Essentials

These sets of plugins are what I consider critical for GNOME to be less obnoxious for the everyday user.

There may be the case of someone skipping one or two plugins, but even so, you should give them a chance to see if the fit for your workflow.

AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support

A simple plugin that will show “tray icons” for applications that support it. It’s so critical for applications that most will EXPECT this plugin to be running.

One problem is customizability. There is no straightforward way to change the icons from the apps, so you’re better leaving it as-it-is.

Go ask GNOME brains why they haven’t included something like this on the Shell by default.

Dash to Dock

Users who like macOS or want a dock like Ubuntu has, Dash to Dock is the answer.

Much like macOS and Ubuntu, it can show external drives and includes an “all-apps” button. Don’t expect minimizing windows to the Dock, or moving files to the trash can, though.

Dash to Panel

If you’re not fan of the macOS-style dock, and you prefer something more like the Windows Task Bar, then Dash to Panel will bring that functionality and style.

It will join both top panel and dock into one by default, and people may not like at first glance, but with a little tweaking it may work wonders.

Logo Menu

This plugin puts a small but very useful menu on the top left of the panel, which is similar to macOS “Apple Menu”. You can put your own icon there and customize some menu options as you see fit.

There is no shortcut to open the Logo Menu, but that’s one small caveat. Also, don’t be alarmed if the Activities indicator is gone, there is a toggle to bring it back.

GSConnect

This one is great for any user with an Android or iPhone, as there is no native way to send files back and forth, or share the clipboard. This plugin solves the problem and many others.

You can even control your computer or even turn it off or even use it to control another computer. Literally a life saver in terms of productivity.

The only caveat is for iPhone users, as the app must be on the foreground and some other features are exclusive to Mac computers.

Browser Search Provider

This is a great plugin that adds Internet search to the native GNOME Search. You may also prepend y to search something in YouTube, or d to search via DuckDuckGo, among others search engines. All links will be opened in the default browser.

While it’s great, it doesn’t have any configuration, and there is no way to add a custom search engine or even meta searchers like SearXNG, WebSurfX or Whoogle. It’s that or nothing.

Emoji Copy

One great thing about Windows 11 and macOS is their emoji integrations to the keyboard, which they work everywhere. GNOME includes one utility, but it doesn’t work on most applications, like Chrome. Emoji Copy brings it back by adding it to the panel.

Grand Theft Focus

If you’re annoyed by the “Window is ready” notification every time a window wants your attention, this plugin will instead focus the offending window.

The complementary plugins

I don’t consider these plugins as “essential”, mostly because their use cases are based on too many conditions or add features you could live without.

Blur my Shell

For people who like rice on their desktop environment, this plugin brings some of the blur effects to the GNOME Shell.

It integrates very well to the GNOME Shell overall, but some effects may not show properly with Dash to Dock and Dash to Panel.

Tiling Shell

This plugin makes Windows and macOS have a run for their money in terms of tiling windows, especially if you have two or more monitors, or an ultra-wide monitor, and you have to deal with many windows at a time.

One caveat is that it doesn’t replace the native (and basic) GNOME tiling, and doesn’t support maximizing a window on their own tile — probably due to limitations of GNOME itself — but the amount of usefulness overshadows these small problems.

Auto Move Windows

If you have to deal with a lot of windows in different workspaces, odds are you will be moving them to their place every time they start. This plugin does that, automatically.

This is a great savior for people who use multiple workspaces and monitors. One caveat are apps with multiple windows, because it will force the first window to appear in its assigned workspace.

Hide Top Bar

If you really want to maximize your screen real state, this plugin will automatically hide the top panel. It includes an “intellihide” mode that can show the top bar by pushing the cursor up.

There are some edge cases where hiding the top bar brings more problems than solutions, but there are very rare.

Clipboard Indicator

This plugin has been downloaded more than a million of times, and with reason: it’s a great clipboard manager for those people who copy-paste a lot and don’t want to lose previous copies.

Some people will be fine without a clipboard manager, but you should give it a spin if you’re constantly wandering back your apps to copy again a previous text or image.

Caffeine

If you have problems with the computer going to sleep in a middle of a download or critical process, or when you’re watching something, this plugin is for you.

Caffeine deactivates the system sleep, but it’s more flexible than that. It can activate itself through certain apps, via shortcut, and even detect full-screen apps. It also includes timers so you can let Caffeine work only for a limited period of time, so you don’t overshoot the consumption on laptops.

Search Light

In a nutshell, it brings the GNOME Search into its own box, front and center, much like Spotlight from macOS or Alfred.

This It’s FOSS article shows some awesome things you can do with the native GNOME Search.

Caveats? It’s GNOME Search, so it can be as good or as shallow as GNOME Search is. Luckly there are some plugins that enhance the search system, but if you want a swiss-knife for everything then you will have to find something else.

Night Theme Switcher

This plugin automatically toggles Dark Mode on the desktop by schedule, or location. It also registers a keyboard shortcut to toggle Dark Mode manually, and it can pause the transition if there is an app in full screen, like a Steam game.

One big caveat is the location, as it’s broken in GNOME since June 2024, but there are ways to fix it. Ubuntu users be warned, the plugin doesn’t work there.

Auto Accent Color and Auto Adwaita Colors

I bring both of these plugins because they’re a killer combo on GNOME 47.

The first takes the wallpaper most dominant (or complementary) color and uses the closest accent color for the shell — this is very useful if you change wallpapers constantly. The second will change the shell icons that match the accent color selected.

You may need some Terminal magic to make both plugin work, in edge cases.