This is the last and final article of the series “Let's Customize Ubuntu” featuring Gnome Tweak Tool. You can find the previous two articles here and here. I am sure by now, that you are aware of the review criteria, hence I am not going to state it again. In this article, we will be wrapping up the discussion on the best Ubuntu customization tool based on the score they all received.

Gnome Tweak Tool

Gnome Tweak Tool was a 3rd party tool developed by gnome developers when Gnome Shell was first released. It was meant to provide customization options for Gnome Shell and Gnome 3. It was definitely a welcomed addition for Gnome Shell users since it provided common customization options like themes, icons and fonts.

As you can see from the screenshot, this application is mostly focused on tweaking gnome shell. You can still however customize basic desktop options like icon themes, window themes, window behavior and icons displayed in the desktop.

Integration with Ubuntu

Gnome Tweak Tool is based on GTK 3 and uses the system default theme. This integrates it nicely with other Ubuntu applications. It also makes full use of GTK3 components like switches etc. It does not however provide support for quicklists nor indicator. Quicklist could have come handy to go to a specific category quickly.

Points = 6

Availability

Gnome Tweak Tool is available to install from the the Ubuntu Software Center. You can also install it using a PPA for getting newer versions automatically. The PPA details are provided below,

 sudo apt-get install ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

You can browse the code in Launchpad, which is the default standard for Ubuntu users interested in developing applications for Ubuntu.

Points = 10

Performance

The memory usage of this application was around 12 MB which is reasonable and is lower than MyUnity and Ubuntu Tweak. The startup time is around 1-2 second which is quite responsive and fast. The application is mainly for Gnome Shell users although still providing few options to customize the desktop. Hence it targets to a smaller set of users.

Points = 8

User Interface

As can be seen from the screenshot, the application provides a simple to use GUI interface. It does not have a cluttered interface but makes it rather simple to navigate. It is also very similar to the Gnome Control Center and hence should make it comfortable for users to use. It provides a search option to quickly find the customization option you are looking for.

Points = 8

Maturity

This application has been around around a year and a half and hence brings stability, usability to the table. I did not experience any crash or memory leaks of any sort during my usage.

Points = 10

Extras

Since this application is mainly for Gnome Shell, other users running this application will notice that the options specific for Gnome Shell are disabled which is nice. However, this application is too simple, in the sense that it does not provide any subtle animations or provide a restore to defaults option. And hence it does not do any extra and is not awarded any points.

Points = 0

Summary

Well, summing them all up Gnome Tweak Tool receives a total of 40 points out of 50. At the time Gnome Shell was received this application played an important role of helping users to customize Gnome Shell. However, 2 cycles later, it need to add more features to present itself as strong alternative to other existing 3rd party applications.

Recapping everything until now, here are the scores received by MyUnity and Ubuntu Tweak in comparison with Gnome Tweak Tool.

MyUnity = 49 Points

Ubuntu Tweak = 45 Points

Gnome Tweak Tool = 40 Points

Looking at the scores, each application need to focus on minute little things to achieve perfection. Based on the feature set, Ubuntu Tweak targets a wider audience with its wide range of features, while MyUnity is focused on Unity (as the name suggests) and Gnome Tweak Tool is mainly for Gnome Shell Users.