sudo dnf swap totem mpv
Check out configuring MPV. Also make sure you're getting hardware acceleration properly.
htop is a lightweight system monitor for the terminal.
sudo dnf swap gnome-system-monitor htop
If you want something graphical, you can use something like Resources.
sudo dnf rm gnome-system-monitor
flatpak install flathub net.nokyan.Resources
No matter what system monitor you go with, just remove GNOME's.
These apps remain unused for me, at least. Feel free to keep whichever ones you need (though you'll need to figure out which does what).
sudo dnf rm rhythmbox gnome-connections gnome-contacts evince gnome-tour simple-scan
If you're not doing office work, remove LibreOffice:
sudo dnf rm "libreoffice-*"
GNOME Tweaks allows (proper) configuring of system fonts, themes, mouse, touchpad and keyboards, enabling titlebar buttons, etc. It's essential in any GNOME system.
sudo dnf install gnome-tweaks
Install Extension Manager:
flatpak install flathub com.mattjakeman.ExtensionManager
Pick some extensions: https://extensions.gnome.org/#sort=downloads (you can also browse in the Extension Manager app)
I think GNOME is quite limited in regard to theming. That said, I don't find it that much of a necessity since the desktop already looks decent. If you still want to spice some things up, then...
As a prerequisite, every GTK theme you pick should support GNOME Shell / libadwaita / GTK4 theming. You need this in order to have a consistent looking system. Make sure you install the extension User Themes to apply your changes.
Find some themes here (Pling), though I personally recommend vinceliuice's themes. They mostly fit the criteria and are decent looking.
I don't use an icon theme because they never really provide enough icons and it feels like an unnecessary change. Adwaita doesn't even look that bad.
A custom system font may be a good idea. I use JetBrains Mono (install using sudo dnf install jetbrains-mono-fonts).
Install a version of Mutter with the triple-buffering patch:
sudo dnf copr enable trixieua/mutter-patched -y
sudo dnf update --refresh
Sources:
- https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/1441
- https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/trixieua/mutter-patched/
This is probably not a good idea since it allows discovering new apps, and installing stuff is much easier with it, but I simply don't like how it auto-starts and runs in the background, and uses a decent amount of resources. This is only specific to my setup, though.
sudo dnf rm gnome-software