We like Opensuse and so much so that we have already talked about it on other occasions, we teach you how to install it and we give you some tricks so that after installing it, it can be ready for daily use.
OpenSUSE is that great GNU/LINUX distribution, that like few others makes us feel in a business environment, being one of community character. I admit that I will always be in love with it, because I started using GNU/LINUX with her when I was a teenager. It is always known that OpenSUSE has a predilection for the Plasma desktop, but the truth is that it treats everyone equally, with Gnome being a great aleternativa in this distribution of the chameleon.
Gnome and OpenSuse: a great duo
OpenSuse is such a well-done and thought-out distribution that it’s not really difficult to use whatever desktop environment you choose, you could, for example, use Plasma or XFCE and the way you work would not be affected; that’s doing things right. Although there is always a favorite desktop environment and in this case it is Gnome.
Gnome is a veteran of the GNU/LINUX desktop environments and is mega known to be the default one used in Ubuntu and Debian, two of the most popular and used distributions in the world. With a minimalist concept that is not exempt from many controversies and sometimes serious failures, it is a reference to a clean and simple environment focused on productivity and integration.
However, GNOME and its overly minimalist concept is not to the total liking of many users, and so they prefer other desktop environments, despite GNOME’s efforts to move forward with its concept, it becomes a bit difficult to be entirely productive if we don’t have extensions.
GNOME extensions provide additional features that add functionality and possibilities to the user experience. We will see how to install, the extensions that for the author are the most necessary.
Install firefox plugin to install plugins from the gnome extensions site
In order to install GNOME extensions from your website, we must install a Firefox extension from this link directly. After that, click on the add firefox button and wait for it to download and then, we must to install chrome-gnome-shell from official repositories through terminal:
sudo zypper install chrome-gnome-shell
And now, we must to restart gnome: ALT + F2, write r and enter.
Finally we can go to the GNOME Extensions website and install the ones we want.
1.- AlternateTab
By default, GNOME’s ALT+TAB is a bit short of functionality, activating this extension means that the windows are not grouped by application, but each one is shown as it is, and we also have some options to increase customization. It comes already installed in a clean installation of OpenSuse with Gnome and only needs to be activated from Gnome-Tweak-tool.
2.- DashToDock
Some of the best in all of GNOME. No exaggeration. Turn your favorite applications into a dock, with many customization options and without having to install third-party applications.
As it does not come standard in the official OpenSuse repositories, we must enter the GNOME Extensions website and activate it from there. Here is the direct link to the extension. Next we must activate the extension through the Gnome Tweak Tool, where we can also access the configurations and adjust the behavior to our needs:
3.-Removable Drive Menu
If you work with removable devices whether they are external hard drives, partitions or removable memories, this is the extension for you, as it allows us to add a status menu for accessing and unmounting removable devices. Direct link to extension, here.
Activate the extension from the site and then we get a pop-up window asking if we want to install it, press install and that’s it.
And then, as always, we set out to activate it from the Tweaks tool.
4.- Drop Down Terminal
This is one of the most important extensions, if you are like me, that I cannot live without using the terminal, or if you are learning to use it. Deploy a ready-to-use terminal from the GNOME top bar. Simply wonderful. We can access directly from this link. We activate it and then go to Tweak Tool to initialize it.
Note: If you get an installation error, you must install the typelib library. Write the terminal:
sudo zypper in typelib-1_0-Vte-2.*
And reset Gnome with ALT +F2, type r and then enter.
And we test it by pressing the key above the TAB.
5.-NetSpeed
NetSpeed is an extension that allows us to monitor the speed of a network interface we select, to know at what speed of download or upload. Very useful if you have slow connections or simply want to know the behavior of the network. Through this link we can access it directly.
As a conclusion it is remarkable to say that GNOME is a great desktop environment focused on the simplicity of its component programs but that through the extensions we can add features that help us to be more productive.
Gnome and Opensuse are a great combination to have if you want to get started in this world of GNU/LINUX.
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Great article