A GNOME extension to give Ubuntu superpowers
The ability to achieve 100% productivity is a myth, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to organize your life, be it personal or professional.
Many people use tools like Pomodoro timers to manage their daily tasks, working in set intervals followed by short breaks and then repeating. But there are other aspects of a workspace that could be improved.
Take, for example, your operating system, its The integrated window management can be a bottleneck if you are someone who likes to have many windows open across multiple workspaces and displays.
But there is a way around this, and if you are using Ubuntu or another Linux distribution with GNOME, you are in luck.
With this first look we take a look at “Tile tray“, an open source window tiling solution for GNOME-based systems.
Tiling Shell: Overview ⭐
The lead developer behind it, Domenico Ferraro, wrote it in the TypeScript programming language and describes it as follows:
A Gnome Shell extension that implements a modern Windows tiling system by extending GNOME’s default 2 columns to any layout you want!
Some Key Highlights from Tiling Shell include:
- Easy multi-monitor operation.
- Snap Assistant like Windows 11.
- Can be used on GNOME 40-46.
- Supports both X11 and Wayland.
First impressions 👨💻
I have been using Tiling Shell for a few months now on my Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS laptop running GNOME 42.9 (X11 session). I installed it after feeling the need for a more intuitive window layout after seeing the one in action in Windows 11. (the only thing I like about it)
My Tiling Shell configuration is pretty close to the default settings and I have to say the experience has been great so far.
The The level of control it offers is impressivethere are options to tweak the inner/outer gaps between windows, enable Snap Assistant, configure the tiling system, add keyboard shortcuts for window management, and more.
Various Tiling Shell settings
As for the layout selection, The possibilities are endless (literally), there are some handy pre-configured ones that are usable. But the main highlight is the layout editor, the star of the show.
It has a slider mechanism that can be coupled with keyboard shortcuts (is not displayed in the article) to create the perfect layout to your liking. Once edited, clicking on the Tile Wizard will give you an option to save.
Left: Layout switcher. Right: Layout editor.
The last menu in the layout shown above is a custom menu I created using the editor to tile two equally sized tiled windows, similar to what we find in most window tiling configurations.
If you go into the Tiling Shell settings, you also have the option to import/export layouts to use them across devices. For me, this didn’t work as expected.
What what the multi-monitor experience is likeTiling Shell doesn’t disappoint in this regard. The Snap Assistant makes it easy to tile windows between workspaces and displays. I didn’t feel like this behavior was an add-on, it felt completely natural to me.
I usually use the Ctrl key on my keyboard to snap windows into my custom layout by dragging. But the mouse-only operation via Snap Assistant was great and is almost the same as on Windows 11.
📥 Get Tiling Shell
Remember that it no standalone appbut a shell extension for GNOME. You can download it from the GNOME Extensions website.
If you don’t know how to install a GNOME extension, you should read our guides on GNOME Shell extensions and the Extension Manager. You will need to install one of them if you don’t want to set up Tiling Shell manually.
If you are looking for the source code or instructions for manual installation, you should visit the project’s GitHub repository.
💬 Do you know other cool extensions for GNOME? Feel free to add them below!
Recommended reading 📖
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