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Summary
Fedoras GNOME desktop windows neither have minimize nor maximize buttons.
Its counterproductive because it makes the Linux desktop even more alien to newcomers.
Here are two different ways to get them back.
Where Are the Standard Buttons?
Lets clear this up, right out of the gate.
It isnt Fedora’s fault.
Fedora Linux gives you GNOME in its untouched fresh-from-the-box state.
I likethe GNOME desktop.
But those missing buttons confuse people.
Were so used to seeing them, that their absence is akin to a culture shock.
Double-clicking a title bar will expand a window to fill the entire desktop.
Thats great, but sometimes its easier said than done.
Dragging a window upwards so that it bounces against the top edge of the desktop will also maximize it.
In GNOME, you dont minimize windows.
Theres nothing for a window to minimizeto.
Theres no taskbar like you have on Windows.
Some docks support clicking the launcher icon to restore or hide an software.
That only works when the dock is in view, though.
GNOME also supports using Alt+Tab or Super+Tab to cycle through your running applications.
All of these options are workable, but theyre not immediately apparent, and theyre not particularly discoverable.
And there are two simple ways to do it.
Youll see the Tweaks icon.
tap the icon to start the program.
The main screen of the system will appear.
In the sidebar, smack the “Windows” option.
Youll see two sliders in the “Titlebar Buttons” section labeled “Maximize” and “Minimize.”
To restore each of the missing buttons, activate the sliders by clicking on them.
The buttons appear or disappear as soon as the sliders are moved.
Theres also a toggle button labeled “Placement.”
The command is quite long, but its actually very simple.
Were asking for the minimize, maximize, and close buttons to be present.
The buttons are on the left, but they look a little odd.
The close button is the innermost button, but it’s usually the outermost one.
The order of the buttons in the command dictates the order they appear on the title bar.
Well move the close button to be first in the list of buttons.
That gives the window a more natural look.
There’s usually some compromise somewhere along the line.
Tweaking lets you adjust, work around, or remove little annoyances.
You dont need to do it to use Linux, but its there if you want it.
