Ubuntu 23.10 with GNOME 45 has replaced the top-left ‘Activities’ with a workspace indicator. By hovering over it, you can use mouse scroll to switch workspaces.

This is done by a simple extension called “Workspace Scroll”. Like the volume icon, with that extension, you can move mouse cursor over the top-left indicator, then scroll the middle mouse button to switch workspaces (aka Windows’ Virtual Desktop).

This can be useful for mouse heavily users, since it saves you a few mouse clicks!

UPDATE: THIS BEHAVIOR NOW IS DEFAULT OUT-OF-THE-BOX!!! You don’t have to follow any tutorial, just move mouse cursor over the workspace indicator and scroll middle button.

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How to Install Workspace Scroll

To install the extension for this feature, firstly press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal.

Then, run command to install “Extension Manager” app:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager

Next, click on top-left button to open overview, search for and launch “Extension Manager”.

Finally, use the tool to search and install the “Workspace Scroll” extension under ‘Browse’ tab.

For other Linux with GNOME 45, such as the upcoming Fedora 39, Arch/Manjaro etc, just open the link below:

Then use the ON/OFF switch to install that extension. If you don’t see the switch, install browser extension via the link in the page and refresh.

After installed the extension, just move your cursor to top-left indicator button, and scroll the middle wheel to verify.

In the recent update of Ubuntu 23.10 daily build, the GNOME desktop has been updated to v45 beta. And, here are some visual changes.

The default wallpaper now has a dark variant. Meaning changing Ubuntu Desktop to dark style will also change to dark style wallpaper. Though, the final wallpaper is not revealed yet!

The ‘Files’, aka Nautilus file manager, has been redesigned with more stylish layout. Which, supports drag and drop web image into file, and implements Global Search.

Redesigned Nautilus File Manager

And, there’s new system extension to enhance tiling window support. Not only half screen tiling, it also support tiling window to quarter screen size, with either drag’n’drop or keyboard shortcuts, as well as features such as Tiling Pop-up and Tiling group.

By going to ‘Settings’ -> ‘Ubuntu Desktop’, you’ll see the new toggle options. Though, you can get even more by using “Extension Manager”.

Via the latest Gnome Shell package updates, the top-left ‘Activities’ button is finally replaced by an indicator. Now, it displays a white pill that indicates which workspace you’re on. Depends on how many workspaces you have, all others are indicated via gray dots.

As well, you may found the app menu, to indicate which app window is on focus, has also been removed. Though, the new Window Focus animation is not implemented at the moment.

They are even more great new features in Ubuntu 23.10. To try it out, just download the latest daily build image from the link below and install it in either real or virtual machine.

Ubuntu (since 23.10) introduced new enhanced tiling window support! Here’s how you can try it out in Ubuntu 22.04 & Ubuntu 20.04.

For those who don’t know what is window tiling, it’s a window management behavior that snap window to screen edge/corner to be half or quarter-tile. So, you can work with 2, 3, or 4 app windows side by side in your screen.

Ubuntu so far has basic tiling support, that can only snap window to left or right half-tile. An enhanced tiling is available soon via a new built-in extension called “Tiling Assistant”.

By either dragging or use keyboard shortcut, user can tile window to left, right, top and bottom half, which is called Edge Tiling. And, tile window to top-left, top-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right quarter of screen, called Corner Tiling.

And, after tiling a window, it has a tiling pop-up feature that automatically show you ‘Super + Tab’ app switcher style pop-up to choose which app to auto-tile to the remaining screen space. And, when clicking focus (raise) a tiled window, all windows in the tile group raise together.

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Install Tiling Assistant in Ubuntu 22.04/20.04

Like ‘Ubuntu Dock’, the new extension is a fork of the community maintained ‘Tiling Assistant’ extension. Which, support GNOME desktop from version 3.36 to 44 at the moment.

Ubuntu 22.04 user can firstly search for and install “Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+

Then, launch the tool and use it to search & install “Tiling Assistant” extension under Browse tab.

For Ubuntu 20.04, first press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command to install the agent and Extensions app packages:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

Then, go to the link below and use ON/OFF switch to install ‘Tiling Assistant’:

If you don’t see the ON/OFF switch, install browser extension with link in the page and then refresh!

After installed the extension, launch either “Extension Manager” or “Gnome Extensions” app and open the settings for that extension to configure the new tiling behavior.

Run Ubuntu on laptop or other machine with touchscreen? You can enable touch feedback with an extension.

It’s ‘Touch X‘, an extension that support GNOME from version 40 to 44. Meaning for Ubuntu 22.04, 23.04, Debian 12, RHEL 9, Fedora, Arch, Manjaro and other Linux with recent GNOME.

In these systems, it supports ripple feedback where the screen is touched. The feedback looks a bit like the locate mouse pointer function as the screenshot below shows you.

I don’t have a touchscreen device running Ubuntu. However, you can install and try the extension out by following steps one by one.

Install Touch X Extension

Firstly, open Ubuntu Software and use it to search and install the “Extension Manager” app.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+

Then, click on top-left ‘Activities’ to open overview screen. When it opens, search for and launch “Extension Manager”.

Finally, navigate to ‘Browse’ tab in Extension Manager, search and install “Touch X” extension.

Once installed, switch back to “Install” tab. Then, click on the gear icon for that extension to open configuration page.
There you can change the color and radius of the ripple feedback.

For other Linux with GNOME, go to the extension web page via link below:

Then turn on the toggle switch to install the extension. And, use GNOME Extensions (available in Gnome Software) app to configure it.

If you don’t see the ON/OFF switch, install browser extension via link in that page and refresh it.

For those who prefer light theme, there’s an extension now to make all the GNOME Shell components to be light!

Ubuntu so far has light and dark mode options available in the ‘Appearance’ settings page. It can switch the color scheme for system menu, notification, and app windows.

However, other components, such as panel and dock, are always dark!

GNOME developer team has been working on the full light mode support. Before it’s going official, user can try it out via an unofficial extension.

With the extensions, the following part of your desktop will also go light:

• Top panel.
• Ubuntu Dock (left panel)
• OSD (volume down/up pop-up)

Light Shell

Install Light Shell Extension

1. The extension so far supports GNOME 42, 43 and 44. Ubuntu user can first search for and install “Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+

2. Then, click on top-left ‘Activities’ to open overview screen. Search for and launch “Extension Manager” tool.

3. When the tool opens, navigate to ‘Browse’ tab. Search for and install ‘Light Shell’ extension.

In case ‘Extension Manager’ does not work for you, go to the extension web page via the link below:

Then turn on the toggle to install it!

If you don’t see the ON/OFF toggle, install browser extension via link in that page and also press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

Finally, refresh the web page.

Turn Off or Remove Light Shell

With the extension enabled, the dark mode (via Appearance settings option) will NOT go fully dark.

In the case, you can launch “Extension Manager“. Then either use the ON/OFF switch to disable the extension, or click expand and use “Remove” button to uninstall.

That’s all. Enjoy!

Looking for an alternative on-screen keyboard for Ubuntu, Fedora or other Linux with GNOME? Try GJS OSK.

The built-in on-screen keyboard in Ubuntu and other Linux with GNOME is not so good. It lacks some keys, and does not raise up in most cases in Ubuntu 22.04.

In this tutorial, I’m going to introduce a new OSK application. It’s GJS OSK written in GNOME JavaScript. The application features on-screen keyboard with even more keys, such as F1 ~ F12, number 0,1,2,…9, Arrows, Ctrl buttons, and PrintScreen.

And, without sticking to the screen bottom, user can move the keyboard anywhere around the screen. Just click on quadruple arrow icon (see screenshot below) in the OSK, then you can drag moving it just like normal applications.

GJS OSK, allows to move around the screen

Also, it has an indicator applet on panel allows to one mouse click to show or hide the keyboard.

Click show/hide the on-screen keyboard

Other features of GJS OSK include:

• Both Wayland and X11 support.
• Support changing landscape and portrait size, font size, but sadly can NOT change the keyboard size.
• Allow changing keyboard color.
• Support QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY, Dvorak layout.

GJS OSK with different background color

How to Install GJS OSK

NOTE: GJS OSK is a stand-alone on-screen keyboard. You need to disable system built-in on-screen keyboard first from Settings to avoid conflict.

1. First, go to link below to download the source from Github release page:

For GNOME 45+, meaning Ubuntu 24.04/23.10, Fedora 39/40, Arch/Manjaro etc, select download the main.zip under ‘Assets’ section. While GNOME 44 and earlier, meaning Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, etc, can choose the pre-45.zip.

2. After downloaded the .zip package, you do NOT have to extract it. Just open up a terminal window (for Ubuntu, press Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install it:

gnome-extensions install /path/to/zip

Instead of typing /path/to/zip, you can just drag’n’drop it into terminal instead.

3. log out and back in. Then, launch either “GNOME Extensions” or “Extension Manager” app (both available in Ubuntu Software, App Center (filter via Debian Package), Gnome Software). Turn on the new “GJS OSK” extension, and click its gear icon to configure its layout.

Finally, click on  the top-right corner keyboard indicator applet to show/hide the new on-screen keyboard.

Uninstall GJS OSK

To remove the extension, also launch “Gnome Extensions” or “Extension Manager”, click the “⋮” or arrow icon beside the toggle switch to expand, and select “Remove” the extension.

Want to send your application shortcut icons onto desktop, so you can click them to launch the corresponding apps? This simple tutorial is going to show you how to do the job in Ubuntu 24.04 with default GNOME Desktop.

As far as I know, there are 2 ways to easily add your app icons to the desktop in Ubuntu. They include:

• Manually drag and drop the associated .desktop file on to desktop, add executable permission, and enable allow launching.
• Another way is using an extension, which adds “Add to Desktop” context menu option to your app icons.

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