Cutting edge openSUSE Tumbleweed just updated to Gnome 43

I just updated my openSUSE Tumbleweed which is installed as a virtual machine. To my big surprise, Gnome 43 has already been included. Since this is a new version, I couldn’t help but taking it for a spin and yes, it’s great to see all of the Gnome 43 tweaks and improvements.

First, let’s see if my Gnome tweaks still work

I am not a fan of big window title bars. To make them noticeably smaller, I create a gtk.css file which lives in the home > .config > gtk-3.0 directory. If you are new to Linux then note that the .config directory is hidden. To make it visible, I press the “Ctl + h” key. Pressing the same key combination again will revert the view as it was before.

Here is the content of my gtk.css file:

decoration {box-shadow: none;}
vte-terminal,
terminal-window {
    padding: 6px 6px 6px 6px;
    -vte-terminal-inner-border: 6px 6px 6px 6px;
}
headerbar entry,
headerbar spinbutton,
headerbar button,
headerbar separator {
    margin-top: 0px; 
    margin-bottom: 0px;
}
headerbar {
    min-height: 24px;
    padding-left: 2px; 
    padding-right: 2px;
    margin: 0px; 
    padding: 0px;
}

I am happy to see that Gnome 43 honors the overrides contained in this file. If you want to experiment with making the Gnome windows title bars smaller and adding padding to the terminal then feel free to do so.

Please remember that once the gtk.css file has been saved, you need to log our and in to see the changes. By default, Gnome title bars are quite bulky which, to me, looks weird. I assume that Gnome 43 is not too different from the previous version since the tweaks I have listed above still work. I am actually glad about that because Gnome has a reputation of breaking stuff with every new version. Apropos breaking, let’s examine the extension next.

Gnome 43 extensions compatibility

Dash to Panel

I used to be a Gnome extensions addict but lately, Ihave kicked the (bad) habit. The only extension I must have is Dash to Panel which is present on all of the workstations here. My Zephyrus G15 laptop also runs Dash to Panel but in order to function, needs asusctl-gex which has already been updated for version 43.

supergfxctl-gex is also ready for Gnome 43 which makes me look forward to upgrading the laptop to Fedora 37 next month. Other than that, Gnome runs as stable as can be and I have no issues at all. If I remember correctly, upgrading from Gnome 39 to 40 and then again, from 40 to 41 was quite a mess. Many of the popular extensions were not available when the new versions were released. This time around, things seem to be a lot better.

Gnome themes

Linux used to be big on user themes. I too had my favorites and enjoyed the macOS look which turned my desktop into an Mac-looking clone. These days, I focus on work and don’t care so much if there are little traffic light dots or x’s in the window title bar. The only thing that I still tweak are the terminal colors.

Gnome is the most popular Linux desktop and I have no plans to switch back to XFCE or KDE. So far, nothing has given me the simplicity of setting up a local network than Gnome has. A few clicks and admin passwords is all it takes to be up and running. It was this particular features which made me notice Gnome in the first place. Once It took a while but once I understood the brilliant design behind Gnome, I was hooked.

As nice as the perfect desktop environment is, changing the wallpaper and default icons is the final touch and I highly recommend that you poke around and experiment with changing at least those. Once the desktop looks right, working on websites and design jobs becomes a joy.

Sorry Windows users, this is not a post that you will ever understand unless you try openSUSE Tumbleweed, Gnome edition right now. Just like Fedora, openSUSE Tumbleweed is also a fantastic Linux distribution. Their server edition is so dependable that I have no need to test anything else.

Gnome 43 bugs or issues

1. Files is missing the 67% icon size. On my 34″ LG Ultrawide monitor, the 100% folder icons are too big and the 50% folder icons too small. The 67% option would be perfect. Hopefully others will notice that too so that it will get added back in.
2. Hopefully nothing else …

I’ll update this post if anything unexpected comes up but so far, Gnome 43 is perfect and then some. Thank you Gnome team! 🙂