Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek
Do you find Ubuntu 25.10 too minimal—offering bare-bones functionality? Well, you’re not alone—I also think Ubuntu ships incomplete. It’s only after making these seven tweaks that you start to realize it’s full potential and probably love it more—like I did!
I started my Linux journey back in 2016 with Ubuntu but soon left it as I saw how powerful and feature-packed the other distros were. However, Ubuntu 25.10 with GNOME 49 looked really polished and modern, so I decided to give it a try. While it wasn’t perfect out of the box, I tried to hone in on the major pain-points, so I could focus on solving them—and I’m happy to say that I’ve made Ubuntu much more functional, and it only requires …
Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek
Do you find Ubuntu 25.10 too minimal—offering bare-bones functionality? Well, you’re not alone—I also think Ubuntu ships incomplete. It’s only after making these seven tweaks that you start to realize it’s full potential and probably love it more—like I did!
I started my Linux journey back in 2016 with Ubuntu but soon left it as I saw how powerful and feature-packed the other distros were. However, Ubuntu 25.10 with GNOME 49 looked really polished and modern, so I decided to give it a try. While it wasn’t perfect out of the box, I tried to hone in on the major pain-points, so I could focus on solving them—and I’m happy to say that I’ve made Ubuntu much more functional, and it only requires seven simple tweaks.
Installing GNOME Extension Manager and GNOME Tweaks
Ubuntu uses GNOME, which is famous (or infamous) for its minimal and often bare-bones desktop environment. Thankfully, Ubuntu tries to improve on that by adding a dock and desktop icon support using GNOME extensions. That said, we can’t access these extensions by default and need special tools to do so: GNOME Extension Manager and GNOME Tweaks.
Both are available in Ubuntu’s repositories, so just open the terminal and run:
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager gnome-tweaks
GNOME Extension Manager gives you a graphical app to browse and install tons of extensions to add new functionalities to Ubuntu. GNOME Tweaks, on the other hand, handles themes and interface tweaks—like moving the position of window buttons, changing font styles, system sound effects, and other modifications to give you enhanced control over how GNOME looks and behaves.
Adding GNOME extensions to supercharge the top bar
Ubuntu’s top bar is extremely minimal—it just shows the time in the middle, quick settings to the far right, and the Activities button on the left. Thankfully, I can make it significantly more useful by adding a few extensions, namely: Astra Monitor—for system resource monitoring; Workspace Indicator—to visually see all open workspaces and drag windows between them; Clipboard Indicator—for accessing clipboard history; and Tray Icons Reloaded—to show system tray icons that are otherwise hidden.
I also install App Icon Taskbar when using an ultrawide monitor. This shows all my pinned and running apps directly on the top bar—capitalizing on the extra horizontal space. The extension also completely eliminates the need for the Ubuntu Dock, giving me more screen real estate while keeping everything accessible from one place.
Setting up GSConnect
GSConnect is another GNOME extension, and it essentially functions as KDE Connect adapted for the GNOME desktop environment. You can use it to connect your Ubuntu PC with your smartphone. Once paired, you can send files between devices, use your phone as a trackpad to remotely control the cursor on Ubuntu, or use your phone’s virtual keyboard to type on your system.
GSConnect also supports clipboard sharing, notification sharing, and even taking phone calls directly from your desktop. To get a better sense of what’s possible with GSConnect, you can check out my guide on how I use KDE Connect on Windows—you can enjoy the same features on Ubuntu as well!
Enabling fuzzy search
GNOME-based distros, including Ubuntu, enjoy a system-wide search that’s crazy fast. Just hit the Super key to open the Activities overview and start typing—Ubuntu will show matching installed applications, uninstalled apps available in the store, system settings, and even files and documents that contain the search query. It’s genuinely powerful, but there’s one major drawback—you can’t make a typo. So if I type “setings” instead of “settings”, it’ll fail to fetch any results—unless I happen to have a file titled “setings.”
This is where the Fuzzy Application Search extension became essential! You simply install and enable it, and Ubuntu automatically supports fuzzy search. It saves me from having to delete the search term and type it again—making the search experience significantly more forgiving and practical.
Installing GNOME Software and enabling Flatpak support
One of Ubuntu’s biggest criticisms is its heavy push on Snap packages. While I’m not going into the Snap debate right now, I will say that I don’t like it and much prefer Flatpaks. Now, traditionally you’ll need to install Flatpaks using the terminal, but I like having a dedicated graphical store to browse and discover apps. This is why I decided to ditch the Ubuntu Store, install GNOME Software (which should come preinstalled in my opinion), and enable Flatpak support.
To install GNOME Software, enter the following command in the terminal:
sudo apt install gnome-software
Next, enter the following commands in sequence to install Flatpak and make it accessible from GNOME Software:
sudo apt install flatpak
sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
This gives me a graphical store where I can search for both DEB packages and Flatpaks. Alternatively, if you’re only looking for a Flatpak-focused GUI store, Bazaar is an excellent option that you can look into as well!
Connecting Ubuntu with Google Calendar
Before trying Ubuntu 25.10, I was using Garuda Linux with KDE Plasma. So, when I discovered that GNOME lets you connect your Google account at the system level, I was really excited—this functionality has been missing from Plasma for a while. I use almost every Google service, and having this deep integration built directly into the system is really helpful—especially for Google Calendar.
To set it up, all you need to do is head into Settings > Online Accounts > Add Google Account. Once connected, all your meetings and time blocks automatically sync with GNOME Calendar, and you’ll start getting notifications right on your desktop. It’s incredibly powerful for staying on top of your schedule. You can also access Google Drive directly through the Nautilus file manager, which is always a nice convenience!
Enabling sound overamplification
As soon as I jumped into Ubuntu, I noticed the sound volume was lower than what I’m used to. YouTube videos and games didn’t play loud enough, and even with my speaker knob dialed to full and system volume at 100 percent, it still felt like the sound was suppressed!
While the experience was annoying, solving it wasn’t too difficult. Just head into Settings > Sound and enable the Overamplification option. This lets you push the volume up to 150 percent, making your sound system as loud as it’s meant to be. In case you’re wondering if raising the volume that high causes crackling or distortion, it doesn’t—at least I haven’t experienced any issues with my system.
There you have it—seven tweaks that made my Ubuntu 25.10 system that much more functional. The distro has always been stable and reliable, but these tweaks add that extra oomph—finally makeing me consider using the distro as my daily driver!