16

I'm on ub20LTS and I really dislike how much top space the topmost bars use. Any idea on how to remove or reduce their numbers? PIC

Edit: Thanks to everybody's support, thishere is how my workspace looks like now. I've :

  1. Installed gnome-extensions for firefox.
  2. Turned off menu bar in ff.
  3. Installed dash to dock.
  4. Installed hide top bar.

This way you can better utilize your screen space.

10
  • 5
    Ubuntu has both yy release (such as Ubuntu Core 16, Ubuntu Core 20) and yy.mm releases such as Ubuntu 16.04 LTS & Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. They are different products, the yy releases are snap only and LTS isn't usually mentioned as they are supported for 10 years (longer than the LTS of yy.mm releases which need to be extended via ESM). Ubuntu yy releases don't normally have desktops installed, so please clarify your release. You did you tag 20.04 yet mention only yy releases in your question & heading (they are different products)
    – guiverc
    Nov 1, 2020 at 1:29
  • 2
    For Firefox, you can press F11 to go "full-screen" temporarily on times when you need nothing extra besides your web page. Press F11 again to return back to normal.
    – FedKad
    Nov 1, 2020 at 8:26
  • 1
    It looks like this isn't Ubuntu, this is Firefox. How about a better browser? :-)
    – Gábor
    Nov 1, 2020 at 12:44
  • 1
    @Gábor: Gnome desktop is drawing a toolbar of some kind top bar, as well as a taskbar at the bottom. It's not just Firefox's fault. KDE doesn't do that by default; you could just switch to KDE to reclaim that top space for any application. Nov 1, 2020 at 22:12
  • 6
    @Gábor There isn't currently a better browser than Firefox. So that won't work. As for GNOME, this is one of the reasons I'm also so glad I switched to KDE. Nov 1, 2020 at 23:12

5 Answers 5

20

You can turn off the titlebar in Firefox.

  1. Press the Alt key and select View -> Toolbars -> Customize

    enter image description here

  2. Unselect Title Bar at the bottom of the page

    enter image description here

  3. Enjoy no Title Bar

    enter image description here

3
  • 1
    Good answer, this seems to be mostly a Firefox issue - alternatively the OP could use a browser like Vivaldi which doesn't have a titlebar.
    – C26
    Nov 3, 2020 at 15:34
  • 1
    Chromium, Brave etc. also have this option in their settings.
    – Tom
    Nov 3, 2020 at 22:24
  • 1
    In my configuration, I put the normal icons (back, refresh, print, etc) + URL bar + bookmarks in one row. In the row above it, I have the normal application menu (File, Edit, View, etc) in the "title" bar (which strangely doesn't have a title). I could forgo the latter if I wanted. I did have to fiddle with several configuration items though.
    – jrw32982
    Nov 5, 2020 at 18:54
8

There are several options.

1) Use the Pixel saver extension.

This extension will remove the legacy titlebar when an application is maximized. This will work nicely for Firefox, Libreoffice and any other application that uses legacy titlebars.

Pixel saver extension

  1. Install the extension with the command sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-pixel.
  2. Enable the extension using Gnome Tweaks or Extensions. Both are not installed by default, but can be installed with the command 1 sudo apt install gnome-tweaksorsudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-prefs`.

2) Hide the top bar

Hide the top bar. Then, only the chrome of your applications will be visible.

Install the extension: sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-autohidetopbar. Enable the extension as outlined under 1).

You can combine this with option 1) to further increase vertical screen real estate.

3) Install Dash to Panel

You currently have launchers on the bottom. The extension Dash to Panel will combine these launchers with the elements of the top bar (application menu, clock, status menu, ...) into one bottom bar.

To install the extension, install gnome-shell-extension-dash-to-panel and enable it as described under 1).

You can go a step further and combine this extension with the "Pixel saver" extension to remove the title bar at the top when the application is full screen.

4) Only for Firefox: disable the titlebar

This removes the titlebar in Firefox only. Head to the menu (☰) and select Customize. In the left bottom corner, turn "Title bar" off.

2
5

There are Gnome Shell Extensions that provide extra functionality. To install Gnome Shell Extensions you will need to enable the Universe repository and you will need to install a few support packages.

First, run the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt update
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extensions gnome-tweak-tool chrome-gnome-shell x11-utils

Then, you will need a firefox add-on to add extra extensions.

Navigate to the Gnome Shell Integration add-on website and install the add-on.

Finally, I haven't tested this particular extension out but I've used a similar extension in the past. The following extension is reportedly working on 20.04. If it doesn't work, you may be able to find a similar extension to do the same thing:

No Title Bar - Forked - Gnome Shell Extension

Also, you might want to search for something like "remove title bar gnome shell extension" if this one doesn't work for you.

After you install your extension, you can enable and manage your extensions through the Gnome Tweak Tool application which can be found in your list of installed packages. It is sometimes simply listed as "tweaks".

4

The big difference is that Ubuntu 16 uses Unity and Ubuntu 20 uses Gnome. You can configure Gnome to look more like Unity, but it's way easier to just use Unity directly:

  • sudo apt update
  • sudo apt install ubuntu-unity-desktop

Video instructions: https://youtu.be/PJTD68gl5e0

Note: This will change your entire desktop environment to be more like Ubuntu 16, not just the menu bar in Firefox, but it'll fix that too :).

1
  • Thanks for this. I'm thinking of switching to KDE as some users have pointed out.
    – Prakhar
    Nov 4, 2020 at 23:43
2

I think Unite shell extension is what you are looking for.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .