Window transparency with blur? It’s an oft-lusted look for many Linux users. We’ve seen various approaches over the years for GNOME desktop – some involved, some less so – the aesthetic has a big drawback on lower-end devices: performance.
But there is a delightful easy way to fake a transparent-blur aesthetic on GNOME without the resource cost that comes from doing it properly. How? By using a blurred desktop wallpaper and the 2 Wallpapers GNOME extension.
Rather than make app windows translucent and apply a dynamic blur which has to update and re-render on the fly (which is resource intensive), this extension changes your wallpaper based on whether any apps are visible.
How does that help?
Well, when no windows are visible, you see wallpaper A. Open an app, and—bam: wallpaper B.
Here’s the clever bit: if you set wallpaper B to a blurred version of wallpaper A, when apps which let you adjust their background opacity (like terminals) are open, you get an instant mock-blur effect:
A demo (compressed; quality is video not effect)
I love Blur My Shell but my couch laptop — hardly a beast, if you Google the CPU visible in BTOP++ in the video above — often chokes up, so I disable ‘fancy’ extensions and apps (regular readers will know that I love a bit superfluous desktop clutter/eye-candy).
But low-power devices are, largely, the intended audience for this “trick”. The developer of 2 Wallpapers says that they “like the look of blurry and transparent windows” but not the impact on system resources.
Their extension offers lightweight window blurring by er, not blurring windows at all!
It’s described as a ‘concept’ that was ‘made on the fly’ with ‘zero skills’. I’d say they’ve gained a few skills in the endeavour as the extension worked well in my testing. I also find it a creative way to approach such an oft-lusted look for Linux desktops.
Now, I should be clear: 2 Wallpapers does not make your wallpaper blurry. You need to point it at a pre-blurry one, or create your own (open an image in a tool like GIMP and apply a Gaussian or Box Blur filter – save it as a second image; don’t overwrite the original).
But you don’t have to use a blurred image (or use those for any kind of fake see-through window-blur gimmickry at all).
You could use two different wallpapers and letthe extension switch between them based on whether you’re working or gawking at your desktop:
Blur doesn’t have to be involved…
The extension lacks settings, but you do get larger click zones from which to pick your wallpaper pairing . Wallpaper 1 for when no app windows are visible, and Wallpaper 2 for when one or more windows are visible.
Admittedly, the whole “blurry windows” effect will fall down the second a semi-transparent window overlaps another other.
But those using a window tiling tool (like Tiling Shell or Grimble) may find having a blurred wallpaper helps non-transparent windows stand out as well as make semi-transparent ones look pretty.
Want to try it out? You can; it works on GNOME 45-49, meaning you’re good to go on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and later.
Get 2 Wallpapers on GNOME Extensions
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