19

Some people (me) would prefer the straight GNOME experience as opposed to the Unity style desktop offered in Ubuntu 17.10.

How can I get the standard GNOME desktop and interface?

muru
  • 193,181
  • 53
  • 473
  • 722
Charles Green
  • 20,952
  • 21
  • 60
  • 92

2 Answers2

17

There are two methods to easily gain a more GNOME like experience in Ubuntu 17.10.

The first method is to run the program

sudo apt install gnome-session

This will undo many of the features that have been added to GNOME, such as the always-on dock, but will leave the Ubuntu color scheme.

The second method is to execute the command

sudo apt install vanilla-gnome-desktop

This will install the GNOME themes as expected from prior versions of Ubuntu GNOME, change the Plymouth splash screens, and install several common GNOME utilities.

muru
  • 193,181
  • 53
  • 473
  • 722
Charles Green
  • 20,952
  • 21
  • 60
  • 92
  • Nice! But don't we have to remove anything? – pomsky Oct 13 '17 at 12:43
  • 1
    @pomsky Not that I noticed - I had previously removed `gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock`, but that (and quite a bit of other stuff) is removed or disabled by the `vanilla-gnome-desktop` package – Charles Green Oct 13 '17 at 12:48
  • I have not tried it but as far as I know the default ubuntu desktop is nothing more than a theme and an extension. – Panther Oct 13 '17 at 14:57
  • 1
    @bodhi.zazen I would have thought so too, except for the 100+ additional packages installed by `vanilla-gnome-desktop` – Charles Green Oct 13 '17 at 15:01
  • @CharlesGreen I've upgraded from Ubuntu GNOME 17.04. There was a separate *GNOME* session (+ GNOME on Xorg) offered at the login screen along with the default *Ubuntu* session (+ Ubuntu on Xorg) one gets after a fresh installation. This GNOME session is identical to my 17.04 setup, Ubuntu Dock and appindicators were disabled by default, Adwaita theme was available (removed in fresh 17.10) etc. – pomsky Oct 20 '17 at 01:36
  • @pomsky That's great! I did not do an upgrade, but a fresh install. My own experience with the upgrades is that after three or four.... – Charles Green Oct 20 '17 at 01:46
  • And if you want to get rid of the Ubuntu shenanigans in the DE selector use `sudo apt purge ubuntu-session`. – Videonauth Oct 20 '17 at 12:54
  • So what is the difference then between this and install [`gnome-session`](http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/10/install-vanilla-gnome-shell-ubuntu-17-10)? –  Oct 21 '17 at 13:47
  • @ParanoidPanda A huge pile of dependancies `vanilla-gnome-desktop` installs quite a few utilities related to gnome. I have not tested just using `gnome-session` yet, having messed up my system to the point of reinstallation yesterday. – Charles Green Oct 21 '17 at 13:51
  • @ParanoidPanda Tested both - `vanilla-gnome-session` loads pretty much the entire Ubuntu-gnome experience, from the initial plymouth screen onwards. `gnome-session` undoes some (most?) of the Unity-like features of 17.10 and replaces with Gnome behaviour, but keeps the Unity-like themes. – Charles Green Oct 21 '17 at 22:56
  • 1
    @CharlesGreen: Maybe it would be good then and important for your answer to contain that distinction given that both packages do exist and various guides point to either one of them. –  Oct 22 '17 at 12:51
  • @CharlesGreen `gnome-session` installs none of the usual tools like libreoffice and some of the extensions and a lot of the X stack. tested it as i went bare metal. All in all 171 packages less are installed by `gnome-session`, worth about 400 MB. – Videonauth Oct 22 '17 at 13:31
  • @Videonauth I think you are correct - as a dependency, `vanilla-gnome-desktop` includes `gnome-session`, but the other items such as libre-office are only included as recommends – Charles Green Oct 22 '17 at 13:53
  • @CharlesGreen how will installing "vanilla" differ from the old Ubuntu-Gnome? any missing or added programs/features. Alternately what features are missing/added over Ubuntu-Gnome when just installing gnome-session. i.e. are either identical to the ubuntu-gnome or if not which is the closest – TrailRider Jan 06 '18 at 23:46
  • 1
    @TrailRider Although not an expert... 'vanilla-gnome' will be what you used to have from Ubuntu-Gnome. Gnome-session is just the gnome screen layout, less of the unity like look, and none of the gnome applications that you got with Ubuntu-gnome. – Charles Green Jan 07 '18 at 00:28
  • @CharlesGreen thank you that was what i had gathered but wanted to clarify. I was not sure if vanilla pulled in more other programs and dependencies than ubuntu-gnome had – TrailRider Jan 07 '18 at 01:11
0

If you want full GNOME, you can install it by using:

sudo apt install gnome

This package installs around 293 packages/utilities and on the other hand vanilla-gnome-desktop package installs around 170 packages/utilities which in my opinion aren't required just to experience Vanilla GNOME. You can install a 'minimal' version of vanilla GNOME which need only 4 new packages using:

sudo apt install ubuntu-gnome-desktop

It doesn't include additional packages (which many of times are useless) and GNOME plymouth but you can experience vanilla GNOME without using much space.

Kulfy
  • 17,416
  • 26
  • 64
  • 103
  • I'll try this on a VM - my personal preference was the Ubuntu-gnome flavor (I've only used Ubuntu since 12.04) and got to prefer that desktop. I *think* that the `ubuntu-gnome-desktop` feels more like Unity, which had originally caused me problems with one of my laptops. – Charles Green Jan 29 '19 at 02:41
  • @CharlesGreen I'm using ubuntu-gnome-desktop since Ubuntu 16.04. And currently I'm on 18.04 and using the same. I've experienced no particular difference as far performance and appearance are considered. I can't comment on apps since I've considered only DE. And I'll strongly suggest to stick to at least some default apps. Moreover `ubuntu-desktop` in 18.04+ is Unity like GNOME. – Kulfy Jan 29 '19 at 05:03