Native and external UI

Gnoblin keeps GNOME's window management and core desktop services. An external shell owns the bar, dock, launcher and desktop popups.

Provided by your shell

Bar, dock and application launcher
Volume/brightness popups and workspace indicators
Capture controls
Window-management menu
Notifications, unless GNOME's service is explicitly enabled

See choose a shell and native feature settings.

Kept in Gnoblin

Screen locking and authentication
Keyring, network and mount prompts
Accessibility services
Portal permission and selection dialogs
Desktop right-click recovery menu
Recovery panel when no shell surface is visible

Removed from this session

GNOME's Overview, dash, app grid, extension loader and extension management UI are unavailable. User scripts remain supported.

Alt+F2 opens the developer console.

Stock GNOME retains its normal behavior. Test both modes when changing shared code; see testing.