GNOME is one of the oldest and most popular interfaces for free and open-source operating systems like Linux. But modern GNOME looks nothing like its origins, and it has evolved into one of the best ways to use a computer.
Whether you’re already using Linux or curious why you might want to make the switch, here are some of the best features of GNOME.
1. Minimalist Distraction-Free Design
Most desktop interfaces include quite a few on-screen elements that aren’t related to the task at hand. Windows and Chromebooks have taskbars across the bottom that contain all of your favorite or open apps. macOS has a dock for the same purpose. Most free and open-source desktop environments for Linux have a similar layout.
On GNOME, the panel at the top does not contain any app launchers. This panel is small and black, like on a phone or tablet, and is lately static. It contains the date and time, a few system indicators in the top right, an Activities button in the top left, and the name of the currently running app next to that.
You click that Activities button when you want to do anything unrelated to the currently open app. Otherwise, there’s little on-screen to distract you from what you're doing.
2. Focused, Consistent, and Intuitive Apps
GNOME’s minimalist design extends from the desktop to the apps themselves. You don’t have various menus to navigate or numerous preferences to toggle. Most features are often found right at the top of the app in what’s called the headerbar. Some apps do their tasks so straightforwardly that they don’t need a headerbar at all.
GNOME considers an abundance of options to be a mark of poor design and a burden that makes apps difficult to maintain. Instead, developers hone in on what’s essential and cut the rest. This makes GNOME apps incredibly easy to learn and, like the desktop itself, not very distracting. Since app makers adhere to a similar design language, one app also looks and functions similar to the next.
3. Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile-Friendly
These GNOME apps not only fit well on your desktop, but if you shrink them down, you find that most now adjust to fit a mobile device as well. This adaptive design is similar to how modern websites work, with webpages automatically adjusting to your screen size rather than displaying separate sites for PC, tablets, and phones.
Adaptive design is great on desktops because that means you can tuck an app away at the side of your screen and find that the interface is still usable. It’s great for mobile devices because developers don’t have to create whole new apps from scratch. You also get to use the same apps across devices, which enables you to establish one workflow and stick to it.
You may especially appreciate this work on 2-in-1 PCs, a form factor that GNOME feels made for. The interface and apps feel as at home on a touchscreen as they do with a keyboard and mouse. GNOME can also seamlessly switch between the two, automatically adjusting the screen orientation as you rotate your display and popping up a virtual keyboard when needed.
4. A Single Place to Do All the Things
GNOME’s Activities Overview opens whenever you click the Activities button, drag your mouse to the top-left, or click the Super key. This screen shows what windows are currently open, what’s on your workspaces, and which apps you can open. Typing brings up search results for apps, files, and other information.
To do anything unrelated to the current app, you open the Activities Overview. Simple. Functionalities other desktops might spread across an app launcher, various panel widgets, or a dedicated search app, GNOME tucks in one place.
5. A Full-Featured App Center
GNOME Software provides a one-stop-shop for finding, installing, updating, and removing your apps. This is also where you go to download system updates.
The home screen contains vibrant app categories, with imagery that pops. App pages offer screenshots and other helpful information, such as whether an app adapts to mobile devices or which programs have access to your data. You can see download sizes and warnings for games that contain violence or strong language.
GNOME Software will also tell you whether an app is open source or proprietary and offer a concise explanation of the difference. This helps set expectations around free software primarily made by volunteers while also pointing out the downsides and dangers of installing closed source programs.
6. All the Programs Needed to Do the Essentials
The GNOME Project has been around for decades, and in that time a sizable number of programs have popped into existence and matured. Everything is in place for a fully-functional desktop operating system.
Sure, there’s the expected software, such as a web browser, file manager, text editor, and calculator. But there are also the more advanced tools, such as a disk partition editor, backup tool, virtual machine manager, and remote desktop manager.
With GNOME, you don’t have to turn to the command line or general-purpose apps to do most tasks or manage your system. Yes, you may prefer an alternative to what GNOME provides, but unlike most other free and open desktops, GNOME has a large enough app ecosystem to cover most tasks.
This is so much the case that alternative desktops often utilize GNOME programs to fill in the gaps in their software experience. Only the KDE project offers a suite of free software more comprehensive.
7. Support for the Latest Technologies
There’s more to a desktop interface than what you see on screen. Underneath there’s a display server that puts images on your screen. There’s an audio server managing sound. There are package formats that apps come in. On Linux, there are multiple versions of each of these system components, with newer ones hitting the scenes every few years.
These system components are agnostic about which desktop environment you use, but GNOME is often the first or among the first to integrate these new technologies.
At this moment in time, much of the GNOME community has fully embraced the Wayland display server that is replacing the X display server, the PipeWire multimedia server that’s replacing PulseAudio, and the Flatpak format replacing DEBs and RPMs (on some distros).
A similar story is true on the hardware front. GNOME works on HiDPI and touchscreen displays. Plus it works on mobile devices. So if you’re trying out something new, you may have a better experience with GNOME than on some of the more traditional alternatives.
8. Make GNOME Your Own With Extensions
GNOME only comes with a limited number of customizations available, but GNOME developers still know that no one size fits all, no matter how much thought and user testing goes into the default design. This is where extensions come in, which let you drastically change how GNOME looks and functions.
With extensions, you can make minor tweaks to your desktop, or you can fully change the layout. Some extensions make GNOME feel more like Windows for people accustomed to that workflow, while another can make the dock always visible at the bottom of the screen, like on macOS.
With the help of the GNOME Tweak Tool, GNOME suddenly becomes a rather customizable desktop. While there are many extensions for GNOME, they are not an integrated part of the desktop. You must use a web browser or the command line to install them, and some will stop working whenever you upgrade to newer versions of GNOME.
Extensions are considered functionality for more technical users that like to tweak their desktop, so GNOME does not highlight their existence. That said, some distributions, like Ubuntu and Pop!_OS, use extensions to customize their default GNOME experience.
Falling in Love With GNOME
GNOME isn't quite like any other desktop interface. If you already have ingrained computing habits that you're perfectly comfortable with, you might not like the GNOME way of doing things.
But if you're explicitly looking for something different, or you're looking for a desktop to give someone who's learning how to use a computer for the first time, you may find GNOME to be precisely what you're looking for.