If you’re an Ubuntu user who switches between workspaces often, especially with gestures (as you can control the speed) you’ll have noticed that your desktop wallpaper slides alongside your apps during transitions.
Some users find this “sliding panel” effect a tad distracting or jarring, others ugly, and a few have said seeing everything (wallpaper and apps) move together gives them motion sickness if they whip between workspaces too frequently.
But a new GNOME Shell extension can help.
Static Workspace Background
Created by CleoMenezesJr (developer of Weather O’Clock), Static Workspace Background — as I’m sure you can guess — stops the wallpaper from moving during workspace transitions, while apps on each workspace continue to slide between.
Since GNOME doesn’t currently support setting a different wallpaper per workspace, you see the same background slide past, segmented by a vertical bar zoetrope-style. This signals “I’ve moved workspace” well, but detracts from what is different: the apps.
Static Workspace Background GNOME Shell extension (works on 48/49, so Ubuntu 25.04/25.10) offers a smoother, more subtle workspace transition that you may prefer — though given how fast workspaces move, you may also be thinking “this is an issue?!”.
Admittedly, this is one a UI tweaks where the (subjective) benefit is best conveyed in action, rather than words — hit play on the video embed below to see before and after (or watch it on YouTube if it’s not loading for whatever reason):
With this extension installed (I use the Extensions Manager desktop app in the Ubuntu repos) you can switch workspace using usual method, e.g., keyboard shortcuts, mouse wheel on workspace applet, or touchpad gestures, without the wallpaper moving too.
If you fancy trying it out, go do so!
Get Static Workspace Background on GNOME Extensions
Thanks (as ever) Scotty