When asked how long have you been using Linux, a good answer in the community would be to associate it with the so-called Compiz era, the era of useless, but really awesome and eye-catching Linux desktop effects.
A bit of history
In that era, arguably no other effect was cooler than the 3D desktop cube effect.
Compiz is a compositing windows manager for the X Windows System which used 3D graphics hardware to create cool compositing desktop effects.
The 3D cube was the most popular and most interactive as it made the windows float off of the workspace and each workspace became a face on a spinning 3D cube.
Desktop Cube is a GNOME Shell extension that promises to be just as useless (at least in terms of productivity) as the original 3D cube effect back in the Compiz era, while also bringing back some sweet nostalgia.
Here’s what you need to know
We already mentioned that the extension basically arranges the workspaces in a cube-like 3D model. The “cube” appears each time you switch between workspaces.
This includes support for touch gestures, keyboard shortcuts, or (from version 8) even by clicking dragging the desktop. You can click and drag anywhere on the desktop to start the animation (however, please note that you need to disable the DING extension for the drag feature to work on Ubuntu).
The effect can also be triggered by dragging on the panel (useful when you’re dealing with maximized windows), as well as by clicking and dragging the overview’s background. For a more “intense” experience, you can also rotate the cube up or down.
Limitations
The extension only works on the GNOME desktop environment, and only on GNOME 40 or above (meaning you have to run Ubuntu 21.10 or later).
As expected, you are advised to turn off other existing workspace-related or workspace-altering extensions prior to Desktop Cube. Since it uses the GNOME Shell desktop, the Desktop Cube extension also doesn’t allow you to change from the last to the first workspace.
Last but not least, please note that this extension is not appropriate for multi-monitor setups.
Verdict
All in all, Desktop Cube is a really fun and nice-to-have, nostalgia-inducing GNOME Shell extension. It may not help you very much in terms of productivity, but the fact that it exists and that it provides a surprisingly high number of customization options is enough to give it a try.
