Noctalia Shell is awesome
Date: 2026-01-17
Recently I started to use Wayland, and while I still think X is better, I quite like some parts of it. I am currently using Niri, and I could finally made Quickshell work, and the first one I tried is Noctalia.
If you are new to customizing Wayland stuff - like me -, a Quickshell is a customizable system component that lets you build around your favorite window manager, like Hyprland or Niri. It will add a bar, but there is so much more to it.
My favorite things about Noctalia
If you click on the top right icon by default, it gives you the control center, and you can find the settings via the cog button. I don't write them about here, cause you could write many pages about the settings, instead just the things I like.
Wallpaper changer
Instead of using a specific program, with Noctalia you can change it very simply. Either applying one wallpaper to all monitors, or have separate background images to every screen. We can either apply it from a local directory, or get wallpapers from wallhaven site. The search function is very good in both cases.
No more searching for Wayland wallpaper changers. With most things with QS and Noctalia, you can put the wallpaper changer on the bar itself, so it's always there with a push of a button.
Night Light
This is also built-in function, where you can setup your eye saving mode, by giving your location, or add hours manually when you want it to turn it on.
Color schemes
There are a couple of colors scheme that you can use, or if it's not enough, you can easily download them, via the UI.
What's more is that these colors can be applied to many programs if they supported by the system, like Qt, GTK, various terminals, launchers, and even Emacs (and Doom Emacs also, which is pretty cool, and simple works). Hyprland, Niri and Mango supported.
It is so simple, when I first tried it, I couldn't believe to my eyes. You can also create your own color schemes, which I haven't tried yet.
Bar customization
Just like other parts of the shell, the bar itself can be easily modified, with tons of options to position, what kind of widgets we want to see, graphical touches, etc. We can turn off bar on selected monitors as well.
Plugins
There are different plugins we can add to Noctalia, like notes, translators, or cheat sheets. Then we can them to the bar as well. These plugins can be in a repository and we can add 3rd party too.
Are there any other shells?
This is FOSS we are talking about, of course there are other shells around. I think the most popular are Noctalia, Dank Material Shell and Cealestia Shell probably.
The good thing is that everybody can make his own shell with QML, and I might try it in the future, if I have energy and imagination, for what I like to do. For now, Noctalia is pretty good and awesome.
