TheActivitiesbutton has been a part of the GNOME desktop interface for a generation, since the arrival of GNOME 3. To many Linux users, it’s a familiar part of the experience.
With the release of GNOME 45, the old button is gone, and a new activities indicator occupies its old space. Here’s what that means and how to make the most of it.
Why “Activities” Is No More
"Activities" was a static label that didn’t convey much information. What is an activity? GNOME conducted user surveys and usability tests to see what people thought of the experience, and many simply found the label ambiguous.
Clicking the button brings up the “Activities Overview.” Once you know that, you never need to read it again. Many people never even click it, opting instead to fling their cursors to the top-right corner or use the keyboard shortcut.
Since the Activities Overview is where you go to launch apps, and opening apps is the first step to accomplishing most tasks, GNOME developers felt this area of the experience needed refinement. After various experiments, the new activities indicator was born.
How the Activities Indicator Works
The activities indicator doesn’t come with a label and instead relies entirely on iconography to convey information. The indicator is a series of dots, with one dot wider than the others. The new indicator not only launches the overview, but it relays information at a glance while also adding functionality.
1. Each Dot Represents an Open Workspace
GNOME lacks the dock or taskbar that you typically find in most other desktop interfaces. As a result, there’s no minimize button on any of your windows. Instead, you’re encouraged to organize your windows across any number of workspaces, which you can also think of asvirtual desktops like you would on Windows.
Before GNOME 45, you could not tell how many workspaces were available without first opening the Activities Overview. The new indicator solves this by putting a dot in the top-left of your screen for each workspace that you have open. If you’re juggling four workspaces, you will see four dots.
Again, one dot in the line-up is wider than the others. This is your currently open workspace. Stretching out this dot helps you see how many workspaces you have open to the left or the right of your current one. That means, at a glance, the new activities indicator now shows how many workspaces you have open and where in the list you’re currently working.
2. Switch Workspaces by Scrolling Over the Indicator
you’re able to switch between your open workspaces by hovering your mouse over the indicator and using your mouse’s scroll wheel (or the equivalent gesture on your touchpad). This is particularly helpful for people using GNOME on their desktop PCs.
Laptop users can quickly switch between workspaces by performing a three-finger swipe left or right anywhere on the screen. The workspace indicator isn’t quite as immediately accessible, but it’s close. However, you always have the option of falling back to a keyboard shortcut instead. By default, it’sCtrl + Alt + LeftorRightarrow.
Say Goodbye to the App Menu
With the launch of the workspace indicator, GNOME has also retired another part of its interface that has been around since version 3.0 launched in 2011. The app menu that appeared next to theActivitiesbutton is nowhere in sight.
This menu had a dual function: to show which window had focus and to serve as a replacement for the traditional menubar, where you could access certain options. The latter never really took off, and most apps used it either to provide quick access to anApp Detailspage or aQuitbutton.
With GNOME 45, the workspace indicator has the top-left corner of the screen all to itself. You no longer need to install an extension to remove the app menu. But there remainother extensions that arguably complete the GNOME experience.
Is the Workspace Indicator Really New?
Visually, this is one of the first changes a regular GNOME user will notice upon first observing GNOME 45. But this button isn’t all that revolutionary. The activities indicator is akin to the virtual desktop widget found on older versions of GNOME, MATE, Xfce, KDE Plasma, and other Linux desktops.
There is also a virtual desktop indicator in the bottom corner of the GNOME Classic desktop, though that has a fixed number of desktops by default.
What’s old is new again, and for long-time Linux users, this may mark the return of a beloved aspect of their former GNOME desktops.
