10 Great-Looking Gnome Shell Themes – Linux

Do you love Gnome Shell but hate the way it looks? Don’t worry, the Internet is chock full of better-looking themes to choose from. There are so many in fact that we’ve had to filter it down to ten of themes that are so good-looking you’ll just have to walk across the room and say ‘Hello’ to them.

Note: the installation instructions to all these themes can be found on the same page in which you download them from.

1. Arc Theme

One of the most popular theme on Gnome is onboard with the design trend towards flatness. Arc is a little bit W10 aesthetically, but its window layouts, navigation panes and so on are more OS X. It’s got transparent elements in small parts of the windows such as the navigation panes too, giving it a bit of welcome depth and textures, but never so much that it gets messy. Give it a try and see what all the fuss is about.

2. Adapta

Inspired by the Material Design ethos most famously seen in the Android operating system, Adapta is a bold theme for those looking to make a bit of a statement. Everything in this theme looks punchy, contrasting and largely flat, giving it an almost “Post-It” kind of feel. The default version is dark with vivid cyan elements, making it pretty light on eye-strain too.

3. Zukitwo

Zukitwois a beautiful, transparent and minimal looking theme. It can make the Gnome Shell desktop look absolutely stunning without going crazy with style changes. Sometimes the simple things look the best.

4. Lexis

Lexis is an incredibly refreshing theme that we’ve all been waiting for. It doesn’t go for the typical flat design trend and instead goes its own way by removing excess parts from the Gnome Shell top bar. And in doing so, it makes Gnome look completely new and shiny.

5. Zukitre Shell

Zukitre Shell is a Gnome Shell theme inspired by a GTK theme sporting the same name. There certainly isn’t any sort of shortage of themes for Gnome that favor an off-black color palette, but it still looks awesome none the less.

6. NovaShell

So, if my past articles are any indication, I prefer minimalism when it comes to design and especially when it comes to aesthetics. NovaShell is a theme dedicated to making the Gnome Shell simplistic in the looks department, and it is one of my favorite examples. If you love minimal, you’ll probably love the NovaShell take on it.

7. EleganZe

EleganZe is elegant, or to put it more correctly, elegant looking. It changes Gnome up a little bit and makes it transparent and easier on the eyes. That’s basically what this theme does. It takes Gnome and makes everything a little easier to look at. It doesn’t over-complicate it with insane changes, just small little things. Overall, EleganZe is a modest theme for modest individuals.

8. Ambiance Gnome

Have you ever wanted to make your Gnome Shell desktop look more like Unity or Ubuntu? If you install Ambiance Gnome to your system, you’ll be able to! This theme takes heavy inspiration from the Ambiance theme that has shipped with Ubuntu for years. How awesome is that?

9. Oxygenium

I love KDE. I also love Gnome. When I discovered that someone created a theme that makes Gnome Shell look like KDE, I couldn’t contain my excitement. Check out Oxygenium. It’s the Gnome Shell version of the KDE Plasma theme known as Oxygen. If you love the way KDE looks but are currently on Gnome, I’d seriously consider this one.

10. Xenlism

Xenlism is a theme inspired by Elementary OS’s window manager theme. Very minimal. So minimal in fact, the Gnome bar is completely transparent. This theme is clearly intended to aide in turning Gnome Shell into something similar to Elementary’s Pantheon desktop environment. And you know what? It looks awesome! If you love minimalism, Xenlism should be right up your alley.

Conclusion

I love Gnome, I must confess. No other desktop environment on Linux, in my view, looks quite as good. And when it comes to themes, no other desktop could be made to look so good with such little effort. Enjoy the list!

Do you have a favorite Gnome Shell theme that wasn’t listed above? We’d love to hear your favorite in the comment section below!