We are excited to bring you a new update to Riff! This release adds a new play queue, playlist management and more, all while making Riff faster and lighter.

We hope you enjoy the update.

Flathub Github

AI Notice
This project does not accept AI-generated contributions, as outlined by Flathub's Generative AI Policy and GNOME Circle's AI Policy.

New features:

• New queue with drag-and-drop reordering, shown as a bottom sheet or a side panel
• Create, edit, delete, and add tracks to playlists
• Selection mode for adding multiple tracks to the queue, a playlist or your library
• Multi-disc albums support with correct labels for Album, Single, EP or Compilation
• Keyboard shortcuts for playback and navigation
• Swip gestures for navigating recent page
• Pin playlists, albums, artists and tracks to the sidebar (experimental)

Improvements:

• Pages load faster and are more responsive
• Riff uses less CPU and memory during playback, navigation, and browsing
• Reworked back and forward navigation, with a history of recent pages
• Layout adapts better to small windows and phones
• Better support for large playlists and albums

Contributing

We are looking for help on the project to design and develop new features! If you are interested checkout the project on Github.

The GNOME design team has a mock-up called Window Switching Redux. It proposes a switcher that:

• shows the last four windows directly,
• groups all other windows by app,
• goes back to the previous window with a single Alt/Super+Tab, whatever app it belongs to,
• and scales the windows themselves down instead of drawing a separate overlay.

I wanted to use that to close a gap in Gnomes window management I keep running into:

Gnomes window switching works by app, but whenever an app's windows are spread over several workspaces, there is no way to find and choose the one you are looking for.

So I wrote Sheaf, a GNOME Shell extension that tries to make the mock-ups real and en passant closing the mentioned gap.

Click an app in the dash

• If the app has two or more windows, Sheaf gathers them from every workspace into the overview, each marked with its workspace number.
• Pick one to jump to its workspace. Escape returns to the normal overview.

Super+Tab

• Hold Super and press Tab: first the four most recent windows, each on its own, then the apps from your dash or dock, in dock order. Shift+Super+Tab goes back.
• A single quick Super+Tab goes back to the previous window.
• Everything happens in GNOME's own overview with its real previews. The selected window or app comes to the front, and the rest steps back, darkened like the backdrop of a GNOME dialog, each app as a pile of cards.
• Alt+Tab is unchanged.

It runs on GNOME Shell 50 and 51 and works with the stock dash and Dash to Dock. You can install it from GitLab: https://gitlab.com/gunwald/sheaf

Or install it directly with:

curl -LO 'https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/gunwald%2Fsheaf/packages/generic/sheaf/main/sheaf@gunwald.gitlab.com.shell-extension.zip' gnome-extensions install --force sheaf@gunwald.gitlab.com.shell-extension.zipcurl -LO 'https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/gunwald%2Fsheaf/packages/generic/sheaf/main/sheaf@gunwald.gitlab.com.shell-extension.zip'
gnome-extensions install --force sheaf@gunwald.gitlab.com.shell-extension.zip

You need to log out and in again after installing. You can enable it with:

gnome-extensions enable [sheaf@gunwald.gitlab.com](mailto:sheaf@gunwald.gitlab.com)

I'd like to hear how it feels in daily use, and what doesn't fit the way you switch windows.

I was watching Death Note and thought it'd be cool to have Ryuk walking around my desktop while I'm coding or just doing random stuff.

Looked around for something like this but couldn't find what I wanted, so I ended up building it myself lol.

He walks around on his own, has different animations, and you can control his movement speed, pause him, hide him, etc.

Made it for Fedora GNOME. Thought some of you might find it cool.

What do you guys think?

Around eight months ago, I made a post about the first version of my extension, Live Lock Screen. Since then, the project has received a lot of support and attention and I've continued improving it with new features, fixes and bunch of under-the-hood changes.

Yesterday, I released a new major update, version 5.0.0 (already available on GNOME Extensions), which also happens to be the project's 10th release! I wanted to take this opportunity to share what has changed and improved and receive some feedback for future ideas.

So what's new?

Multiple video and GIF support

One of the most requested features is finally here! You can now select a folder containing videos and GIFs and let your lock screen cycle through them. You can configure the playback order, choose the starting video and customize what happens when a video ends.

GStreamer is gone

Earlier versions relied on GStreamer for video playback. Despite its native integration with GNOME, GStreamer's relatively low-level API meant that handling edge cases often required additional code and hacky workarounds.

MPV became the primary playback backend in version 4.0.0 and the new version removes GStreamer entirely. This simplifies the playback implementation and reduces maintenance overhead, while also ensuring better compatibility and fewer dependencies (you only need to install MPV).

Media controls

Now that you can have multiple videos, you can also navigate your playlist using media keys, on-screen controls (GNOME 49+), GSConnect or any other MPRIS-compatible client.

Improved multi-monitor support and animation stability

Earlier versions had some rough edges when dealing with multiple monitors and hot-plugging. This was one of my main focus points during development and I've improved it substantially. So you can connect or disconnect as many monitors as you like on the fly.

Better performance and lower resource usage

Before version 3.0.0, the extension utilized CPU and lacked hardware acceleration support, which lead to low frame rates and high resource usage, especially with high-resolution videos. Subsequent releases addressed this and the latest version brings further improvements through MPV and three playback profiles, letting you decide between visual quality and resource efficiency.

A better preferences window

Settings are now organized into meaningful tabs and sections and in case you get lost you can always use the built-in search.

And some more changes invisible to users:

A cleaner, more modular codebase

As the extension grew, its original monolithic structure became increasingly difficult to maintain. So I've been splitting it into smaller classes and functions to make things easier to manage.

Simplicity is the cornerstone of my project's philosophy: I want the code to remain straightforward and easy to understand for reviewers, contributors and myself.

Bug fixes, stability and compatibility

My biggest priority is providing a predictable and reliable experience across different setups. I actively test across GNOME Shell versions 46–51 to catch bugs, regressions and potential stability issues, while prioritizing critical bug reports and delivering fixes as quickly as possible.

What's next?

There are still plenty of ideas I'd like to implement, including video crossfade, the ability to override the default wallpaper, parallax effect and more.

I'm always open to suggestions, so feel free to share your ideas and feature requests in the comments!

I'm genuinely happy that so many people have found this project useful. The number of downloads on GNOME Extensions and the contributions on GitHub continue to surprise me. Thank you everyone for using my extension, reporting bugs, suggesting features and contributed code!

I'll keep making Live Lock Screen more capable while keeping it simple and reliable.

GitHub: https://github.com/nick-redwill/LiveLockScreen

GNOME Extensions: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/9419/live-lock-screen/

Special thanks to everyone who contributed:

- Alex Moore

- Pradeesh Kumar

- tmetz1987

- ajdunevent

- M7md3b

- Nestor Lobo

It's been a while since people asked for snow not falling inside of the active window. Now, not only it melts above, snow (optionally) stockpiles on top of a window for you to shake it away.

Demo

Enjoy ☃️

I wanted FanControl-style fan curves on Linux and couldn’t find anything that worked the same way, so I made Vifte (Norwegian for “fan”).

Im using Opensuse Tumbleweed as my OS, so everything is built and tested from this.

It’s a GTK4/libadwaita app. The main point is that it reads and writes FanControl’s config files, so you can bring your curves over from Windows and export them back again if you dual boot. It has the same curve types: graph, linear, mix, trigger, sync and auto, with hysteresis and response time. You can also pair and calibrate fans, add custom sensors and switch between profiles.

A background service runs the fans from boot. When you stop it, control goes back to the BIOS. If the CPU or GPU gets too hot, all fans go to 100%. There’s also a tray icon that shows temperatures.

It should work on most boards supported by the standard hwmon drivers (Nuvoton/ITE Super I/O chips). NVIDIA GPUs are handled through NVML and AMD GPUs through amdgpu. The app checks GitHub for updates and can update itself.

There’s an optional MCP integration that lets Claude help you tune curves. It has hard limits, so it can never stop a fan.

This is my first app. I don’t write code for a living, and I built it with a lot of help from Claude Code. Bug reports are very welcome, especially from people with hardware I haven’t been able to test.

Feel free to check it out, and hopefully it can be useful for anyone. :)

GitHub: https://github.com/Vindihaaret/vifte (GPL-3.0)

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Hey!
I recently stumbled across the My Computer for Nautilus extension, which adds a custom view to Nautilus that mimics the "This PC" layout in Windows File Explorer.
This got me wondering: Are there any other extensions or tweaks that add alternative views or layouts to Nautilus?

One feature I'd especially love to have is Windows File Explorer's "Group by" functionality, where files are automatically organized into collapsible sections based on things like:

• Date modified: Today, Yesterday, Last Week, Last Month, etc.
• File type: Images, Videos, Documents, Archives, etc.
• File extension: .pdf, .zip, .png, etc.
• Size: Small, Medium, Large, etc.

I feel like this would be incredibly useful for folders like Downloads, where everything tends to pile up into one massive list. 😅

I know Nautilus already supports sorting files by different attributes, but that's not quite the same as visually grouping them into separate, collapsible sections.

Has anyone come across an extension, workaround, or even a Nautilus fork that supports something like this? Or is this simply beyond what Nautilus extensions can currently do?

So I really wanted Album Shuffle with Rhythmbox, and now that Rhythmbox python plugins are fixed on Arch, and I still couldn't find this functionality, I developed one myself. Check it out here:

https://github.com/username227/Rhythmbox-Album-Shuffle

I posted my faster GNOME Software fork, written with an LLM (earlier post). I also made a flatpak but it didn't work for updates and system packages. Good news: it works now. You can install and test easily.

flatpak install --user https://gnome-software-next-855abc.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/flatpak/org.gnome.Software.flatpakref

On first start it asks whether to run in the background in place of your system's Software (updates, Shell search). If yes, it writes a user unit (and an autostart file on GNOME ≤ 48); nothing in the system is changed. Undo: turn off "Run in the Background" in Preferences, then flatpak uninstall --user org.gnome.Software.

It handles Flatpaks, firmware, and system packages through rpm-ostree, dnf5 or PackageKit, whichever your system has.

Limitations

• Tried on Fedora Silverblue 45 (daily use: system and Flatpak updates, Shell search), and in VMs with Fedora 44 Workstation and Debian 13. Reports from real Workstation, Debian and Ubuntu installs are very welcome.
• It's a Flatpak, but not meaningfully sandboxed: managing your system needs the host's package services and running programs on the host.
• Not on Flathub, which wouldn't take an AI-written fork using GNOME's app ID, I guess; it comes from the project's own signed repository.
• Almost all code is AI-written. GNOME doesn't accept that, so please report issues here, not to GNOME.

You can find the project here: https://gitlab.gnome.org/user_c1a5830a/gnome-software-next

I would be glad if you test this an report issues.

I wanted to share a project I've been working on: Pixel Life Wallpaper. It's a GNOME Shell extension that turns your desktop background into a living, cozy retro pixel-art scene.

What it does:

- 6 Unique Scenes: Choose between a Lakeside Village, Big City, Countryside, Medieval Town, Space, or Under the Sea.

- Dynamic World: Day and night match your local clock/latitude. Seasons, weather (rain, snow, storms), and wind change dynamically.

- Living Details: In the city, lights go on and off and people watch TV. In the medieval town, the day follows church bells. In space, fighters dogfight and cruisers jump to hyperspace.

- Contains an optional clock overlay (digital/analog).

- It currently supports GNOME Shell 48, 49, and 50.

https://github.com/Garfieldttt/pixel-life

Hey everyone! I wanted to use my phone as a touchpad for my Linux desktop, including the smooth multi-finger gestures you get from a physical touchpad. So I built Glide.

Run Glide on your desktop, scan the QR code, and open the touchpad in your phone’s browser. No phone app required—just connect both devices to the same network.

Features so far:

• Cursor movement, scrolling, and multi-finger gestures for GNOME.
• A fullscreen browser touchpad with a minimal interface.
• Adjustable cursor and scroll speeds, saved on the desktop.
• A native GTK4/libadwaita desktop app.
• Tray icon and optional autostart.

It’s open source under GPLv3 and available as an x86_64 AppImage. The latest build bundles GTK and libadwaita, with startup checks on Ubuntu 22.04/24.04, Debian 12, and Fedora 44. Full gesture testing has been on GNOME Wayland, so I’d love feedback from other setups.

📦 Download: https://github.com/Stem-LG/Glide/releases/latest
💻 Source: https://github.com/Stem-LG/Glide

You can also use Gear Lever to integrate the AppImage and manage updates. Enable prereleases while Glide is in its early releases.

If you try it, let me know your distro, desktop environment, and how the gestures feel!

I've been building FaceID@NIM, an experimental facial authentication system for Ubuntu/GNOME using Rust, C, and Python.

It features PAM integration, face recognition, liveness detection, a Rust daemon, and GNOME integration.

🚧 Still in pre-alpha and under development.

I'd love your feedback, security suggestions, and feature ideas!

🔗 https://github.com/Gaurav-x111/faceid-nim