Minimal by default. Modular by design. Free to run on the Linux distribution you choose.
This version: January 10th, 2026
What is GYESME?
GYESME is a design-led downstream of GNOME focused on architectural optionality. It treats minimalism as a default state rather than a constraint, and modularity as an internal property rather than an afterthought.
The project explores how GNOME can remain visually and conceptually minimal while allowing optional functionality, alternative workflows, and broader portability across Linux environments.
Why does GYESME exist?
GNOME provides a clean, modern desktop environment with a strong emphasis on consistency and simplicity. Over time, this has also resulted in tightly prescribed defaults, limited architectural modularity, and the rem…
Minimal by default. Modular by design. Free to run on the Linux distribution you choose.
This version: January 10th, 2026
What is GYESME?
GYESME is a design-led downstream of GNOME focused on architectural optionality. It treats minimalism as a default state rather than a constraint, and modularity as an internal property rather than an afterthought.
The project explores how GNOME can remain visually and conceptually minimal while allowing optional functionality, alternative workflows, and broader portability across Linux environments.
Why does GYESME exist?
GNOME provides a clean, modern desktop environment with a strong emphasis on consistency and simplicity. Over time, this has also resulted in tightly prescribed defaults, limited architectural modularity, and the removal or hard-coding of behaviors many Linux users consider fundamental.
GYESME does not attempt to replace or “fix” GNOME. Instead, it treats GNOME as a platform that can be explored, extended, and restructured where appropriate, with an emphasis on opt-in behavior and long-term maintainability.
Extensions, forks, and scope
In the short term, GYESME treats GNOME extensions as a prototyping layer. Extensions make it possible to experiment with behavior, workflows, and optional features without fragmenting the core system.
A fork is considered only where architectural constraints make clean modularity impossible through extensions alone. Any such consolidation is treated as an outcome of research, not a starting assumption.
Minimalism as a principle
Minimalism in GYESME is not primarily aesthetic. It is a governance principle.
- Defaults are protected more aggressively than options.
- Optional features must remain truly optional.
- Complexity is opt-in, reversible, and documented.
The goal is not maximal configurability, but clarity, composability, and restraint.
On systemd independence
GYESME does not oppose systemd, nor does it seek to remove support for systemd-based systems. Instead, it aims to avoid unnecessary hard dependencies on systemd-specific functionality where reasonable alternatives exist.
This approach improves portability, testability, and long-term resilience, and allows the desktop to function across a wider range of Linux distributions and init systems without compromising functionality.
Project status
GYESME is currently in an exploratory phase. The focus is on research, architectural discussion, and documentation rather than implementation.
Development direction is expected to emerge gradually through discussion and contributor input rather than predefined commitments.
Get involved
If you are interested in GNOME internals, desktop architecture, or the long-term evolution of Linux desktop environments, you are welcome to participate.
Discussions, research, and careful disagreement are valued as highly as code.