Wallpapers – you know I love ’em.
Ubuntu 23.04 comes with a small selection of (largely lobster themed) wallpapers out of the box. The choice isn’t vast or varied so you may find yourself looking for additional backgrounds to liven up your desktop.
A fast and easy way to get high-quality wallpapers in Ubuntu is to install the gnome-backgrounds package. This is available in the Ubuntu repos though you need to install it from the command line as Ubuntu Software doesn’t show a result for it.
This package includes the “official” GNOME wallpaper you’ll have no doubt glimpsed in blog posts, videos, and screenshots. I love it. I think it is the best “default” wallpaper of any OS, Linux or otherwise. Neutral without being bland; visually interesting without being distracting:
Plus, the package in question comes with other top-notch supplemental backgrounds to choose from, all created by GNOME’s esteemed design team.
Many of the GNOME backgrounds (when installed from the repo) come in light/dark pairs. These change based on your dark mode preference. When light mode is active you get the version shown on the left-side of the thumbnail preview, and when dark mode is on, the right-side preview.
A few of Ubuntu 23.04’s default wallpapers are (unintentionally) blurry or show artefacts. And even the default background suffers from gradient banding in the upper left, which I can’t help but notice. There are no quality issues with the GNOME backgrounds.
A nice variety of content types, from colourful gradients with waves and geometric overlays, to impressively detailed 3D illustrations (created in Blender, I believe) are offered. “Keys” (below) is a touch too busy to be something I’d use daily, but on my 2K display it’s pin sharp:
Not everyone is as keen on wallpapers as I am (and I’m sure a few of you will reiterate the reasons why in down in comments 🤭). Still, this is my quick-tip to those who want more wallpapers in Ubuntu without the 45 minutes of aimless web browsing that often accompanies finding them!
For more details on these backgrounds do check out the GNOME Gitlab.