By Bertel King - Published Apr 22, 2026
From the moment GNOME 3 launched back in 2011, I felt like it was perfect for a touchscreen, and I’m happy to say that it absolutely is. I’d even go so far as to say that the GNOME interface is a better way to navigate a touchscreen than that of Android or iOS. I’ve said before that I would love to see an official GNOME-only OS, and this experience has only strengthened that desire.
Every aspect of GNOME is easy to tap with a finger. Opening the app drawer and swiping between workspaces feels completely natural with three-finger gestures. Windows are easy to drag around, maximize, or pin to the side. The virtual keyboard that pops up when I tap an input field is the only visual distinction from desktop GNOME. (…)
Well, whatever this… Is… I’ll still offer maybe try gnome-mobile if you can, and see if thats any better on the touch interface. Also, check out flatpaks for apps, as there’s a decent amount of them that support responsive design, so they at least scale in tablets and phones.
There’s also a gnome extension that can manually rotate the screen instead of relying on the sensors.
I’ve been messing around with postmarketOS and gnome-mobile, flatpak apps, and waydroid for android apps, are the 3 things that make it sorts usable. Now if only we could get VoLTE, working cameras, and bluetooth passthrough to waydroid container, that would make me a very happy linux fan.