Ricing / Tweaking Gnome Look and Feel

Last Updated : 12 May 2024

Themes / Icons / Cursors

A GNOME shell theme will change the actual shell, i.e. buttons in the shell, colors in the shell, etc. GTK themes change the theming available to GTK applications. So basically, shell themes are themes for the shell, GTK themes are themes for applications.

Here are some that I like using :

Orchis theme,Nordic theme,Juno, RosePine, Marble Shell, Capitaine Cursors

Tela Icons,Zafiro,Mkos-Big-Sur, Tokyo Night

Extensions

Some may be incompatible with latest Gnome version.

1. Search Light : https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5489/search-light/

2. ArcMenu : https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/3628/arcmenu/

3. Dash to Dock: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/307/dash-to-dock/

4. Aylur's Widgets: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5338/aylurs-widgets/ This extension provides most of the ricing stuff in Gnome top bars like Workspace dots, QuickSettings Tweaks, Clock Format, PowerButton etc

5. Caffeine: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/517/caffeine/

6. Clipboard Indicator: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/779/clipboard-indicator/

7. Rounded Window Corners: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5237/rounded-window-corners/

8. Colored AppMenu Icon: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/3712/color-app-menu-icon/

9. Compiz alike magic lamp effect: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/3740/compiz-alike-magic-lamp-effect/

10. Coverflow Alt-Tab: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/97/coverflow-alt-tab/

11. Clip QR: https://github.com/drien/gnome-shell-extension-clipqr

12. Desktop Icons NG (DING): https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/2087/desktop-icons-ng-ding/

13. GTK4 Desktop Icons : https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5263/gtk4-desktop-icons-ng-ding/

14. Astra Monitor: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6682/astra-monitor/

15. Freon: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/841/freon/

16. Frequency Boost Switch: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4792/frequency-boost-switch/

17. Hide Activities Button: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/744/hide-activities-button/

18. Hide Items : https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6771/hide-items/

19. Impatience: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/277/impatience/

20. No overview at start-up: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4099/no-overview/

21. Running Apps List: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5832/running-apps-list/

22. Simple System Monitor: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4506/simple-system-monitor/

23. OSD Volume Number: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5461/osd-volume-number/

24. Panel Note: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6718/panel-note/

25. Top Bar Organizer: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4356/top-bar-organizer/

26. Useless Gaps: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4684/useless-gaps/

27. Wayland or X11 : https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5149/wayland-or-x11/

28. Show Desktop Button: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1194/show-desktop-button/

29. Alphabetical App Grid: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4269/alphabetical-app-grid/

30. Logo Menu: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4451/logo-menu/

31. Bluetooth Quick Connect: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1401/bluetooth-quick-connect/

Show off scripts

1. There are many but try using Hollywood. It is a mixup of much cool show-off scripts. Installation ARCHyay -S hollywood

2. cmatrix - Simple terminal matrix implementation.

3. pipes.sh - Script which generates animated colorful pipes.

4. cbonsai - Tree growing animation with your text.

5. tty-clock- - Customizable clock in the terminal.

6. lolcat - Rainbows and unicorns!

Neofetch Themes

Neofetch configs : https://github.com/Chick2D/neofetch-themes

More, add a bunch of colors, change the OS logo ASCII art, and even add an image of your waifu to your Neofetch configuration...

Make terminal colorful

Launcher

Rofi: A window switcher, Application launcher and dmenu replacement.

https://github.com/davatorium/rofi

https://github.com/adi1090x/rofi

Other Stuff

1. CLI Audio Visualizer : https://github.com/karlstav/cavayay -S cava

   & https://github.com/catppuccin/cava

   

2. Desktop Audio Visualizer Glava : https://github.com/jarcode-foss/glava

   %[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvYzYJ_axPA&ab_channel=LinuxGuyNepal%F0%9F%87%B3%F0%9F%87%B5]

3. CLI File Manager : https://github.com/ranger/ranger

   

4. Nemo File Manager , Thunar File Manager yay -S nemo thunar

5. System monitoring dashboard for terminal : https://github.com/aksakalli/gtop

Alt-Tab behaviour

By default, Alt-Tab in Gnome switches between groups of windows. Like separate browser windows are a single group. There is another shortcut for switching within the group, making it really cumbersome to switch to a specific browser window.

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-windows "['<Alt>Tab']"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-applications "['<Super>Tab']"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-windows-backward "['<Shift><Alt>Tab']"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-applications-backward "['<Shift><Super>Tab']"

To revert those settings back to the originals:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-windows "[]"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-applications "['<Super>Tab', '<Alt>Tab']"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-windows-backward "[]"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-applications-backward "['<Shift><Super>Tab', '<Shift><Alt>Tab']"

Will keep updating this regularly.

Other Resources :

https://github.com/fosslife/awesome-ricing#packages

https://www.reddit.com/r/terminal_porn/

https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/

https://github.com/desaster/gnome-sensible-settings/