Look beautiful. Made by me

After months of working and contributions from our contributors, Blur my Shell version 76 is now out for everyone to try! Now with the new blur backend which bring even more customization ability to how the blur look in BMS

I want to highlight some of the new change in 76 which I think is worth mentioning

• Corner is now rounded out of the box, no external library needed. Available for both Dynamic and Static blur.
• Pipeline effects is now available for Dynamic blur as well, thanks to the new backend! Just want to have normal blur? Or wanting to have something more fancy like Liquid Glass or Vapor Glass, all possible now with Dynamic blur

• Background override now match system light/dark settings
  • Default in GNOME Settings is not Light mode

• Fan of docks? BMS now support more dock extensions, from old to new

• Popup is now blurred (it's already in 73 but with the new backend, it's now in its best form)

There's more in the work so, see you in the next release!

Interested? Get it here on EGO or on GitHub

Introducing the brand-new version 1.7.0 of Letter, now available for download as FLATPAK!

https://github.com/stalvatero/letter/releases/tag/v1.7.0

Thank you all for encouraging me to improve Letter and for helping to make it increasingly elegant, stable, and efficient.

This new version primarily brings UI enhancements, but under the hood, it features some significant updates.

This version highligths:

• Custom account reorder (Preferences → Accounts) reflected in the rail and Local library
• Enable or Disable "Account rail" and / or personalize colour
• Compose suggestion fixes; remove bad recent addresses with ×
• Signature (and compose) formatting can insert and edit hyperlinks from the toolbar
• Accounts list pane hidden; switch from the rail
• Preferences polish (pages, row layout, colour picker sizing).
• Opening large folders is faster. Thanks to Illya Yalovyy.
• Online Accounts opens again on desktops without GNOME Settings (for example COSMIC) when gnome-online-accounts-gtk is installed. Thanks to Thiago Haeitmann.
• The Move dialog shows the account folder tree (indented, with expanders and icons) instead of a flat name list
• A lot of UI optimization to match native Gtk4

Other changes in full CHANGELOG!

And here my GitHub page: https://github.com/stalvatero/letter

Regarding the use of LLMs, I should clarify that I use Cursor as my primary IDE; it assists me mainly by helping to find APIs and integrations that would otherwise have required extensive online research. The ideas, code review, and final validation are all my own.

I would welcome further feedback 😄

Scribe is a lightweight markdown editor built with Rust, GTK4 and libadwaita, 100% native GNOME. You write markdown and it renders inline as you type: headings, bold, lists, task checkboxes, quotes, code blocks, tables, images. No split preview pane, no webview, everything drawn with native GTK widgets.

Its not a tool for developers. Its for anyone who knows a bit of markdown syntax and wants to write a quick README, a note, a doc, or just open a .md file and see the final result instead of the raw syntax.

A note on the AI thing, because people ask these days: this is not a weekend vibe-coded project. The repo is more than 9 years old, it started as mockups and ideas, and over all this time I kept shaping the app because I couldnt find anything native like it. Its AGPL-3.0, no telemetry, no accounts, no cloud.

Its a well-tested version, but you may still hit a bug, let me know and Ill fix it. It has tabs, autosave, focus mode, PDF export, light/dark and an English and Spanish UI.

Repo: https://github.com/gnacho/scribe

I built it because I missed it, I keep almost all my documentation in md, and Im sharing it in case someone else finds it useful.

Ive been in IT for more than 25 years and I maintain several apps, all FOSS, and Ive used GNOME and FOSS all this time. And I havent found anything like Scribe, thats why I made it: the existing options are developer-oriented IDEs, Electron apps or note suites with sync, accounts and all that. I just wanted something small and native.

There is no flatpak package yet, but it will come; for now there are packages for Debian, Arch and Fedora.

Experimental GNOME Shell restart without restarting Mutter or losing Wayland clients

Hi everyone,

I've been working on an experimental approach to restarting the GNOME Shell JavaScript runtime without restarting the entire desktop session.

The goal is simple: restart GNOME Shell's JS runtime while keeping Mutter running and preserving existing Wayland/XWayland windows and their state. Think of it as rebuilding the Shell UI without restarting the compositor underneath it.

I use GNOME Shell 50.5 on NixOS, with GJS 1.88.1 and SpiderMonkey 140.

What I've tested

The implementation destroys and recreates the GJS context, JavaScript runtime and Shell module graph while keeping the gnome-shell process and Mutter alive.

In isolated desktop and native-backend VM tests, I've completed five consecutive runtime replacements. The tests check:

• The same compositor process remains alive.
• Existing Wayland client socket identities remain unchanged.
• Open windows retain unsaved text, and clients continue accepting input.
• Old JavaScript contexts and their associated objects are cleaned up.
• Keyboard shortcuts, the overview and session locking continue to work.
• GDM/PAM authentication still works, including rejection of an incorrect password.

The VM tests also include a 65-second observation period and native callback-lifetime accounting. Two replacements are triggered through Alt+F2 → r → Enter using the same guarded controller.

In a separate manual test on physical hardware, seven windows and their positions survived a replacement, and my personal keyboard shortcuts continued to work. That is a separate observation, not independent proof of every automated check.

The difficult part

The interesting problem isn't rebuilding the UI. It's dealing with the lifetime of objects and callbacks that cross the boundary between GJS and native GObject code.

The current prototype experiments with reattaching a static GType, keeping native callback/vfunc bridges alive across runtime replacements, and cleaning up registrations belonging to the retired runtime.

There have been failures along the way. Earlier approaches involving UI reconstruction, JavaScript interruption and disposable execution contexts had important limitations. The companion repository documents these experiments, including sanitized historical test reports.

What this doesn't solve

This is not a general-purpose Shell recovery mechanism. The Shell must still be responsive, idle and unlocked. It cannot recover a crashed Mutter process or safely interrupt arbitrary blocked JavaScript.

Compatibility with extensions, accessibility, display changes, prolonged stress testing and other GNOME versions has not yet been established.

The project is experimental, and the implementation was developed with substantial AI assistance. Passing the current tests does not establish that native object ownership and callback lifetimes are safe in every situation.

Code and research

• Implementation and reproduction instructions: https://github.com/tomasmark79/gnome-shell-restart-nix
• Research notes, failed approaches and historical test reports: https://github.com/tomasmark79/gnome-shell-restart-research

I'm interested in feedback from people familiar with GNOME Shell, GJS, SpiderMonkey and GObject.

Does keeping native callback/vfunc bridges alive across GJS context replacement sound like a reasonable direction, or is there a fundamental architectural problem with this approach?

I'd also appreciate suggestions for the next small, independently reviewable experiment or negative control that could help establish whether this design is actually sound.

I'm sharing this as research for discussion, not as a proposal for immediate upstream inclusion.

I created a Gnome extension that can Dynamically show the wallpaper depending where the window is, have transparency with what is behind it at the same time and complete customisable blur and mix of the wallpaper and transparency! Works with gnome GUI shell too. It can install a GTK theme to suit and has support for Vesktop and VScode

What do you people think? Would you use it? Anything you'd add? Curious..

I posted this on r/Bazzite, but I hope I might get more in-depth answers here...

My 3 main concerns: Wayland and HDR+VRR support, Proton-Wineland and GNOME-specific performance issues including the inability to set per-app/window overrides.

PEAR Configurator - Restore Apple devices on Linux

Processing img 6utrtt6p5uwh1...

Built with Rust + Slint\- native Wayland/X11, no Electron

- Instantly detects DFU / Recovery mode and identifies exact model (e.g. Macmini9,1)
- Lists signed firmware , downloads with resume + SHA-256 verify
- Two modes: Erase & Install and Keep Data
Ships as AppImage with idevicerestore toolchain bundled
-Supports iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV and Apple Silicon Mac

Open source MIT:

https://github.com/denizomer10/pear-configurator

Looking for testers, especially for Apple Silicon restores. Feedback welcome!

I wanted my GNOME desktop to feel a little like the macOS Tahoe widgets, and I was tired of juggling a separate tool for my ASUS laptop, so I built Gnomo Maestro. "Gnomo" is Italian for gnome, and a maestro conducts the orchestra: the little gnome that runs your desktop.

It is one GNOME Shell extension made of parts you can turn on or off:

- Laptop: power modes, battery charge limit, CPU power limits, turbo boost, fan curves you can drag, keyboard lighting, GPU temperature and power limits, refresh rate, and a System view with your hardware details. On my ASUS it replaces G-Helper.

- LM Studio: the loaded model and what it is doing, load and unload models with the memory each needs, and a quick chat.

- Clipboard history on Super+V: texts and images, search, pinning.

- Screens on Super+P: PC screen only, duplicate, extend, second screen only, like Win+P. It stay open until you choose, which helps on laptops whose display key sends Super+P and lets go at once.

- Desktop widgets: a system monitor, a clock and your tasks (Google Tasks through Online Accounts).

Every pane is real blurred glass: a shader over the wallpaper, or over what is behind the pane, that bends the edges like a lens. It follows light and dark mode.

The hardware settings go through a small system helper, since only root may change them. It knows a fixed list of settings, checks every value against the range the hardware reports, asks polkit before changing anything, and only shows what your laptop actually has. ASUS, Lenovo, ThinkPad and Dell are covered where the kernel exposes the controls.

A few honest notes:

- GNOME 50 only. I tested it on my own laptop (ASUS, Intel and NVIDIA, Ubuntu 26.04); other hardware is tested against simulated sysfs, so reports are very welcome. The System view has a "Copy Report" button for exactly that.

- I wrote it with a lot of help from an AI coding assistant. I reviewed and tested everything on my machine, and the root helper has its own test suite that runs on every push.

- I made this for myself and I am quite busy, so I cannot promise regular maintenance. Issues, forks and pull requests are very welcome, and if you want to take a part further, please do.

GPL-3.0: https://github.com/Sestiano/gnomo-maestro

(Wallpaper in the screenshots: "Big Dipper" by mizuno-as, CC BY-SA 4.0.)

it's been too slow. Painfully slow.

Hey everyone!

I've been working on Sanket, an open-source GNOME Shell extension inspired by the GNOME OS design mockups.

It brings a floating notification island, compact Quick Settings, an enhanced calendar, world clocks, and animated weather to GNOME Shell.

I've included screenshots and animations in the README. I'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions!

GitHub: https://github.com/NarkAgni/sanket

Alguien sabe como puedo mantener el desenfoque de la ventana al minimizar

Uso gnome 51 - extensiones : Compiz alike magic lamp effect y blur my shell

Which decision killed GNOME? None

How would someone get used to gnome when coming from a default windows way of working but using a desktop so gestures aren’t useful and keyboard shortcuts cause pain (shoulder issues)

One of my gripes in my work is that the molecular viewer I've been using (PyMol and ChimeraX) for basic inspection of structures (nothing analyses, I use other tools for this) does not fit within GNOME. It looks batshit in terms of UI. So I've been thinking of building a protein viewer (just viewer, no other functionalities) GTK app. RCSB and other online viewer uses Mol* as their renderer / engine for the protein structure, but it was written in JS. Would it be possible to embed a JS molecular viewer engine / renderer inside a GTK app? If so, how? Maybe some of you can provide me a project that does similar thing so I can use it as an example and framework for the app I am planning.

Additionally, is Python or Rust better for GTK app? My main expertise is in Python, but I can learn Rust since I've been interested at it since 2022 but never found a purpose to learn it.

Thanks for your opinions

Hello,
Is it possible to use Discord PTT when the Window is not focused? I know it used to not be possible before, has this been changed/fixed? GNOME 50

Here's a Toggle Mute script which works without invoking an annoying sound which some headsets do when their microphone get muted. It sets the microphone sound to 0 rather than muting it. This should work with other apps as well.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# ==============================================================================
# SCRIPT: Universal System Mic Mute Toggle with Audio Feedback
# ==============================================================================

# 1. State & Sound Files
STATE_FILE="${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/mic_baseline_vol"
SOUND_MUTE="${HOME}/.local/share/sounds/discord/mute.mp3"
SOUND_UNMUTE="${HOME}/.local/share/sounds/discord/unmute.mp3"

# 2. Get active mic volume percentage (e.g., 0, 10, 70, 100)
CURRENT_VOL=$(wpctl get-volume @ | awk '{print int($2 * 100)}')

# 3. Read saved baseline or default to 100%
if [ -f "$STATE_FILE" ]; then
    BASELINE=$(cat "$STATE_FILE")
else
    BASELINE=100
fi

# Baseline threshold logic (10% minimum threshold)
if [ "$CURRENT_VOL" -ge 10 ]; then
    BASELINE="$CURRENT_VOL"
    echo "$BASELINE" > "$STATE_FILE"
elif [ "$BASELINE" -lt 10 ]; then
    BASELINE=10
    echo "$BASELINE" > "$STATE_FILE"
fi

# 4. Toggle Volume & Play Audio Feedback
if [ "$CURRENT_VOL" -gt 0 ]; then
    # Active -> Mute system audio completely (0%)
    wpctl set-volume @ 0%

    # Play mute confirmation sound
    if [ -f "$SOUND_MUTE" ]; then
        pw-play "$SOUND_MUTE" &
    fi
else
    # Muted -> Restore saved baseline volume
    wpctl set-volume u/DEFAULT_AUDIO_SOURCE@ "${BASELINE}%"

    # Play unmute confirmation sound
    if [ -f "$SOUND_UNMUTE" ]; then
        pw-play "$SOUND_UNMUTE" &
    fi
fi

exit 0

A similar solution could probably be made for PTT if there's a daemon running in the background.

Original Post: [Mock-up] Collapsible Quick Settings/Notifications by Tobias Bernard

There is this sort of way gnome behaves which I want to change. Here it goes-
Whenever I wanna use split screen I just do Super+Left/Right arrow. Both of the halved windows get aligned after I select the second window that I want in my split view. I have another instance of my browser that is running on split screen (I keep the terminal window on right and switch between nautilus and my browser on the right). Whenever I alt+tab to open my browser and then I want to execute some command in my terminal and I click on it, my browser goes away and my nautilus comes up.
Is there any way I can just alt tab and the new window automatically goes into split screen with my terminal.

Apply customizable GPU-powered shader effects to your GNOME desktop, including CRT scanlines, VHS distortion, RGB shifts, and more.

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/11353/shader-effects/

I’ve been working on Wallshader and thought some of you might enjoy it.

You pick a shader, play around with the colors and settings, and use it as your wallpaper. You can leave it animated or grab a frame as a still image. There are presets to start with, and you can save your own too.

It works with Kitty as well, so you can put still or animated shaders behind your terminal. Both desktop and terminal animations keep running after you close the app.

The UI is GTK 4/libadwaita, and the effects come from Paper Shaders. Animated desktop wallpapers need GNOME 50 on Wayland; still wallpapers work on older versions too.

It’s open source, with downloads and setup instructions here: github.com/stonega/wallshader

Curious to hear what you think, especially if you try it on a different setup.

GNOME Contributor Atlas shows a very high number for bug reporters in 2006 and 2007. What is the story behind this exceptional number? Was there an anonymous reporting tool, where every bug report had its own unique user or where there really that many people reporting bugs?

Is the drop afterwards related to the popularity of Ubuntu? And the fact that most bug reports landed in Ubuntus bug tracker instead of GNOMEs?

Edit: Evolution and Files (nautilus) each have more than 10k contributors in 2007.

That's it, that's the post.