It has been a couple of weeks now that GNOME launched a public alpha version of their extensions site which makes adding extensions to GNOME Shell with a single click. To use the extensions through his site first of all you must have install GNOME Shell 3.2 or newer. Fedora has version 3.2 by default. In a previous guide of mine I've shown you How to install Gnome Shell on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. Moreover you must have Firefox installed for this to work. There were some bugs in the browser plugin shipped in GNOME 3.2 that prevent it from working properly under WebKit-based browsers like Epiphany and Chromium. These bugs have been fixed and should be released when GNOME 3.4 ships at the beginning of March, next year. So, here is a list with some useful gnome extensions.
Alternative Status Menu
Replaces GNOME Shell Status Menu with one showing Suspend/Hibernate and Power Off as separate items. (install)
Applications Menu
Adds a gnome 2.x style menu for applications. (install)
Auto Hide Top Panel
Automatically hide the top panel. Useful if you have a small screen, a netbook for example. (install)
Battery Percentage Indicator
Puts a percentage label next to the battery panel icon. (install)
Frippery Bottom Panel
Adds a bottom panel to the shell. Useful, especially when you are working with a large number of windows and switch them frequently. (install)
noa11y
Removes a11y (Accessibility) icon/menu from panel. (install)
Places Status Indicator
Adds a systems status menu for quickly navigating places in the system. (install)
Window List
Adds a list to the top panel with all your open windows. It also displays a preview of the window if you place your mouse over it. (install)
Workspace Indicator
Puts an indicator on the panel signaling in which workspace you are, and give you the possibility of switching to another one. (install)
To update extensions for the time being you have to uninstall them manually and reinstall them. Gnome 3.4 will include features to make sure that your extensions can be updated automatically for you.
To uninstall an extension remove the extension's directory which is stored in ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions and afterwards log out and log back in.
You can also view your all your installed extensions and disable some of them temporarily simply by pressing the on/off button.
What are your favourite extensions? Which ones do you think are the best ones?
