GNOME Shell is the

graphical shell In computing, a shell is a computer program that exposes an operating system's services to a human user or other programs. In general, operating system shells use either a command-line interface (CLI) or graphical user interface (GUI), depending ...

of the GNOME

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphica ...

starting with version 3, which was released on April 6, 2011. It provides basic functions like launching applications, switching between

windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

and is also a

widget engine A software widget is a relatively simple and easy-to-use software application or component made for one or more different software platforms. A desk accessory or applet is an example of a simple, stand-alone user interface, in contrast with a ...

. GNOME Shell replaced

GNOME Panel GNOME Panel is a highly configurable taskbar for GNOME. It formed a core part of the desktop in GNOME 1 and GNOME 2. It has been replaced in GNOME 3 by default with GNOME Shell, which only works with the Mutter window manager. There are many '' ...

and some ancillary components of GNOME 2. GNOME Shell is written in C and

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...

as a plugin for Mutter. In contrast to the

KDE Plasma Workspaces KDE Plasma 5 is the fifth and current generation of the graphical workspaces environment created by KDE primarily for Linux systems. KDE Plasma 5 is the successor of KDE Plasma 4 and was first released on 15 July 2014. It includes a new default ...

, a software framework intended to facilitate the creation of multiple graphical shells for different devices, the GNOME Shell is intended to be used on desktop computers with large screens operated via

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

and mouse, as well as

portable computer A portable computer is a computer designed to be easily moved from one place to another and included a display and keyboard together, with a single plug, much like later desktop computers called '' all-in-ones'' (AIO), that integrate the s ...

s with smaller screens operated via their

touchpad A touchpad or trackpad is a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor, a specialized surface that can translate the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on the operating system that is made output to the screen. Touchp ...

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is ofte ...

History

The first concepts for GNOME Shell were created during GNOME's ''User Experience Hackfest'' 2008 in Boston. After criticism of the traditional GNOME desktop and accusations of stagnation and lacking vision, the resulting discussion led to the announcement of ''GNOME 3.0'' in April 2009. Since then Red Hat has been the main driver of GNOME Shell's development. Pre-release versions of GNOME Shell were first made available in August 2009 and became regular, non-default part of GNOME in version 2.28 in September 2009. It was finally shipped as GNOME's default user interface on April 6, 2011.

Design

As graphical shell (graphical front-end/graphical shell/UX/UI) of the GNOME desktop environment, its design is guided by the GNOME UX Design Team.

Design components

The GNOME Shell comprises the following graphical and functional elements: * Top bar * System status area * Activities Overview * Dash * Window picker * Application picker * Search * Notifications and messaging tray * Application switcher * Indicators tray (deprecated)

Software architecture

GNOME Shell is tightly integrated with Mutter, a compositing window manager and

Wayland compositor Wayland is a communication protocol that specifies the communication between a display server and its clients, as well as a C library implementation of that protocol. A display server using the Wayland protocol is called a '' Wayland composito ...

. It is based upon

Clutter Clutter and its derivations may refer to any of the following: Excessive physical disorder * Clutter, a confusing, or disorderly, state or collection, and possible symptom of compulsive hoarding * Clutter (marketing), numerous advertisements, a ...

to provide visual effects and hardware acceleration. According to GNOME Shell maintainer Owen Taylor, it is set up as a Mutter plugin largely written in JavaScript and uses

GUI widget A graphical widget (also graphical control element or control) in a graphical user interface is an element of interaction, such as a button or a scroll bar. Controls are software components that a computer user interacts with through direct ...

s provided by GTK+ version 3.

Features

Changes to the

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

(UI) include, but are not limited to: * Clutter and Mutter support

multi-touch gestures In computing, multi-touch is technology that enables a surface (a touchpad or touchscreen) to recognize the presence of more than one point of contact with the surface at the same time. The origins of multitouch began at CERN, MIT, University of ...

. * Support for

HiDPI Pixels per inch (ppi) and pixels per centimetre (ppcm or pixels/cm) are measurements of the pixel density of an electronic image device, such as a computer monitor or television display, or image digitizing device such as a camera or image scanner ...

monitors. * A new ''Activities overview'', which houses: ** A dock (called "Dash") for quickly switching between and launching applications ** A window picker, similar to

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

's Mission Control, also incorporating a workspace switcher/manager ** An application picker ** Search * "Snapping" windows to screen borders to make them fill up a half of the screen or the whole screen * A single window button by default, Close, instead of three (configurable). Minimization has been removed due to the lack of a panel to minimize to, in favor of workspace window management. Maximization can be accomplished using the afore-mentioned window snapping, or by double-clicking the window title bar. * A fallback mode is offered in versions 3.0–3.6 for those without hardware acceleration which offers the GNOME Panel desktop. This mode can also be toggled through the System Settings menu. GNOME 3.8 removed the fallback mode and replaced it with GNOME Shell extensions that offer a more traditional look and feel.

Extensibility

The functionality of GNOME Shell can be changed with

extensions Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate * E ...

, which can be written in

. Users can find and install extensions using the GNOME extensions website. Some of these extensions are hosted in GNOME's git repository, though they are not official.

Gallery

File:GNOME_Shell.png , GNOME Shell Overlay Mode Windows File:GNOME Shell 3.32 overview screenshot.png , GNOME Shell Overlay Mode Applications in version 3.32

Adoption

Arch Linux Arch Linux () is an independently developed, x86-64 general-purpose Linux distribution that strives to provide the latest stable versions of most software by following a rolling-release model. The default installation is a minimal base system, ...

dropped support of GNOME 2 in favor of GNOME 3 in its repositories in April 2011. * Fedora uses GNOME Shell by default since release 15, May 2011. *

Sabayon Linux Sabayon Linux or Sabayon (formerly ''RR4 Linux'' and ''RR64 Linux''), was an Italian Gentoo-based Linux distribution created by Fabio Erculiani and the Sabayon development team. Sabayon followed the " out of the box" philosophy, aiming to give ...

uses the latest version of GNOME Shell. *

openSUSE openSUSE () is a free and open source RPM-based Linux distribution developed by the openSUSE project. The initial release of the community project was a beta version of SUSE Linux 10.0. Additionally the project creates a variety of tools, s ...

's GNOME edition has used GNOME Shell since version 12.1 in November 2011. *

Mageia Mageia is a Linux-based operating system, distributed as free and open source software. It was forked from the Mandriva Linux distribution. The Greek term () means enchantment, fascination, glamour, wizardry. The first release of the software ...

2 and later include GNOME Shell, since May 2012. * Debian 8 and later features GNOME Shell in the default desktop, since April 2015. * Solaris 11.4 replaced GNOME 2 with GNOME Shell in August 2018. *

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...

uses GNOME Shell by default since 17.10, October 2017, after Canonical ceased development of Unity. It has been available for installation in the repositories since version 11.10. An alternative flavor,

Ubuntu GNOME Ubuntu GNOME (formerly Ubuntu GNOME Remix) is a discontinued Linux distribution, distributed as free and open-source software. It used a pure GNOME 3 desktop environment with GNOME Shell, rather than the Unity graphical shell. Starting with ver ...

, was released alongside Ubuntu 12.10, and gained official flavor status by Ubuntu 13.04.

Reception

GNOME Shell has received mixed reviews: it has been criticized for a variety of reasons, mostly related to design decisions and reduced user control over the environment. For example, users in the

free software community The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for software users, namely the freedoms to run the software, to study the software, to modify the software, and to share copies of the s ...

have raised concerns that the planned tight integration with Mutter will mean that users of GNOME Shell will not be able to switch to an alternative

window manager A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment. They work in conjunctio ...

without breaking their desktop. In particular, users might not be able to use

Compiz Compiz () is a compositing window manager for the X Window System, using 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management. Effects, such as a minimization animation or a cube workspace, are implemented as l ...

with GNOME Shell while retaining access to the same types of features that older versions of GNOME allowed. Reviews have generally become more positive over time, with upcoming releases addressing many of the annoyances reported by users.

References

External links

*
GNOME shell extensions website
{{X desktop environments and window managers GNOME Graphical shells that use GTK Software that uses Clutter (software) Software that uses Meson User interfaces