I tested GNOME’s glassy new look – and it’s simply spectacular

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• If you’d like a stunning GNOME desktop, set up Aura Glass.
• This glassy desktop could be put in on GNOME 48, 49, and 50.
• Aura Glass is supported on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, and CachyOS.

I like a fantastic desktop. Actually, I’m going to nice lengths to beautify my desktops, irrespective of the surroundings. Whether or not it is COSMIC (my current default), KDE Plasma, or Hyprland, I spend time customizing the desktop so it aligns with my aesthetic.

So far, nevertheless, GNOME has felt behind the curve within the appears to be like division. I get that, as a result of GNOME strives to be a minimal-looking desktop with maximal usability. However ought to that preclude GNOME from trying good?

So, after I discovered about efforts to offer GNOME an Apple-like glassy look, I used to be genuinely thrilled. Now, put up set up, I’m surprised by how attractive it’s.

Additionally: How to make your GNOME desktop look like Windows 11 (if that’s your jam)

This new look known as Aura Glass, which ought to shock nobody, given the present crop of names, reminiscent of Liquid Glass and COSMIC’s Frosted Glass. What did shock me, nevertheless, was how a lot this new look modified the GNOME desktop. Aura Glass brings a dramatic change to GNOME, and I am all for it. Actually, that is essentially the most lovely tackle GNOME I’ve ever seen.

What Aura Glass brings to GNOME consists of:

• Dynamic frosted glass
• True background blur
• Adaptive accent colours
• Optionally available app window blur
• Distraction-free quantity and brightness capsule
• GDM login display screen theming
• Light-weight “No Blur” mode
• Zero system bloat

I put in Aura Glass, choosing the total Monty of options. I did discover a noticeable hit on efficiency; nevertheless, I used to be working GNOME as a digital machine with solely 3 GB of RAM and a couple of CPU cores. Give it not less than twice the quantity of RAM and cores, and you may hardly discover it (which is spectacular, given how a lot blur it provides).

Additionally: 5 quick tweaks make your GNOME desktop so much easier to use

Anybody who makes use of GNOME as their default desktop and is trying to punch up the look ought to undoubtedly give Aura Glass a strive.

Learn how to obtain  Aura Glass

Aura Glass is installable on GNOME 48, 49, and 50, prefers Wayland (though X11 is supported with fallback blur), and is suitable with GNOME on Arch, CachyOS, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Debian. I examined Aura Glass on Fedora 44 working GNOME 50.

Putting in Aura Glass is finished from the command line and requires Git. Earlier than you’ll be able to set up Aura Glass, it’s a must to set up Git, which could be completed with one of many following instructions:

Ubuntu/Debian – sudo apt-get set up git -y

Fedora – sudo dnf set up git -y

Arch/CachyOS – sudo pacman -S git

As soon as Git is put in, clone the Aura Glass repository with:

git clone https://github.com/DevWebeloper/aura-glass.git

Develop into the newly created listing with:

cd aura-glass

Run the set up script with:

./set up.sh

At this level, you may be introduced with a text-based set up wizard. 

Listed here are the choices you may configure within the wizard:

• Accent Shade – select between 9 totally different colours)
• Blur & Visible Depth – Frosted Glass or Stable Mode
• App Window Blue Goal – (solely GTK/GNOME apps, all apps, or no blur)
• Select Window Transparency Stage – (99%, 95%, or 82%)
• Icons & Cursors (Colloid, Reversal, or Maintain present system icon theme)
• Cursor Theme (Inventory Adwaita, MacTahoe, or Maintain present cursor theme)
• Shell Extensions (Obligatory Core)
• Optionally available Extensions Package deal (Really useful Pack, Full Suite, Customized Choice, or Minimal)
• GDM Login Display Theme (Theme GDM login display screen with Aura Glass)
• Sync major monitor to GDM login display screen (just for twin monitor setups)

The final window asks you to overview your choices and both proceed with the set up (Y) or cancel the set up (N).

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From begin to end, the set up ought to take between 5 and 10 minutes (there are plenty of dependencies to obtain and set up). When it’s accomplished, you may be requested to sign off (kind Y and hit Enter).

You need to instantly see that the login display screen has modified (should you opted to theme GDM with Aura Glass throughout set up).

When you log in, you may be greeted by your newly beautified GNOME desktop. Open some apps and see it in motion.

Congratulations, you have simply critically leveled up the aesthetics of your GNOME desktop.