DashBar For Linux

By all accounts, GNOME Shell is not lacking customization support, especially when considering the comprehensive GMOME extension ecosystem.

Usually, users are looking for ways to get more out of everything GNOME has to offer: more customization options for the desktop and all its elements, more usability of certain UI elements, better integration with devices and services, and so forth.

DashBar is one GNOME Shell extension that is probably not aimed at the average GNOME user, but rather at those who want to make due with most of GNOME's elements such as the top bar, quick settings menu, and the taskbar.

What does it do?

In short, DashBar provides a compact, all-in-one taskbar for GNOME Shell. It's super lightweight, it's super unobtrusive, and it acts as a workspace switcher, a dash, and an Activities menu, all wrapped into one. It basically removes the Activities button, it moves the dock in the top bar.

How does it work? To switch between workspaces, simply scroll over the the workspace number icon. Left click the same icon to open the GNOME Shell overview, and right-click to open the Applications grid.

Yes, that's it. It's without a doubt one of the simplest, and somewhat confusing GNOME Shell extensions out there. It does make the whole GNOME desktop seem a a lot simpler, with fewer elements on display, but the fact that it's so heavily based on mouse actions, it won't exactly appeal to everyone.

Dashbar also doesn't have a Settings section, so you have no control over how elements are displayed.

DashBar brings an experimental all-in-one taskbar to GNOME, and if it's not for you, you'll probably look somewhere else for something else. You can install the app directly from its EGO page, or with the help of Extension Manager. It's not that the idea behind the extension is wrong, quite the contrary, but we do feel that it could have been executed a bit better, in a more user-friendly manner.