Google Summer of Code 2026: Native App Uninstallation in GNOME Shell

This summer, I spent my Google Summer of Code working on something I’ve wanted to see for a while, making it possible to uninstall apps right from the GNOME Shell app grid. Before this, if you wanted to remove an app, you had to open up GNOME Software, hunt it down, and delete it from there. My goal was to completely remove that friction. By connecting GNOME Shell and GNOME Software behind the scenes using D-Bus, I made it so users can securely delete apps with just a couple of clicks right from the desktop

GitLab Links to Code

GNOME Shell: App Grid Uninstallation Frontend

This Merge Request covers all the frontend work I did in GNOME Shell. The brain behind it all is a new class called AppStoreIntegrationManager . Think of it as both a state tracker and our bridge to GNOME Software. When it boots up, it connects to GNOME Software asynchronously over D-Bus using the org.gnome.Shell.AppStoreIntegration interface.

To keep the app grid feeling snappy, I didn’t want to query the app store every single time a user right-clicks an icon. Instead, the manager grabs the dictionary of uninstallable apps and caches it in memory. To make sure this cache is always accurate, it listens for installed-changed signals from Shell.AppSystem and quietly updates itself in the background.

Because the data is cached, the UI just has to react to it. When you open the context menu, it checks if the app is in our cache; if it is, the “Uninstall” button appears. This is a great way to prevent users from accidentally trying to delete core system apps. Once a user clicks uninstall, the frontend checks if the app supports purging user data. If it does, a confirmation dialog pops up with a checkbox to wipe those files. After confirming, the app goes into a tracking Set ( _uninstallingApps ). This immediately tells GNOME Shell to remove the app icon from the grid right away, giving the user instant visual feedback that the app is gone. Finally, if the background job finishes successfully, it happens silently without spamming the user with notifications. However, if the uninstallation fails for any reason, a system notification pops up to let the user know what went wrong.

GNOME Software: App Store Integration Backend

This Merge Request focuses on the backend GNOME Software. It’s essentially the engine that listens to GNOME Shell and handles the actual uninstallation and data purging. To make this work, I built a custom GObject called GsAppStoreIntegrationBackend . This object exposes the necessary D-Bus methods and acts as a safe router, directing GNOME Shell’s queries straight into the GsPluginLoader .

When the Shell asks for the list of uninstallable apps via the GetUninstallableApps method, we can’t afford to make it wait while we search the entire software catalog. Instead, the backend fires off a GsAppQuery using gs_plugin_job_list_apps_new to quickly grab only the installed apps. I also built in a strict safety net: if an application is tagged with the GS_APP_QUIRK_COMPULSORY quirk, we automatically strip it out of the response. That way, GNOME Shell never even gets the chance to offer a “Delete” button for critical OS components like Settings.

I also spent a lot of time on secure data deletion, which is super important for sandboxed apps like Flatpaks. To pull this off, I extended the core plugin architecture by introducing a new flag, GS_PLUGIN_UNINSTALL_APPS_FLAGS_PURGE_DATA , to the GsPluginUninstallAppsFlags enumeration. Now, if a user checks that ‘wipe data’ box on the desktop, the backend attaches this flag to the uninstall job. I modified the Flatpak plugin ( gs-plugin-flatpak.c ) to intercept it. Once the standard uninstall finishes successfully, the plugin spots the flag and calls gs_utils_rmtree() to safely and recursively scrub the isolated app data right out of ~/.var/app/<app-id> .

GUADEC 2026 Presentation

Honestly, one of the absolute highlights of my summer wasn’t even the code, it was getting to share this project with the wider GNOME community at GUADEC 2026! I had a blast giving a talk about how this feature actually works under the hood. I walked through the technical hurdles of bridging GNOME Shell with GNOME Software.

You can check out my presentation here

What’s Next?

This project might be wrapping up, but my time with GNOME is just getting started. My immediate goal is to finish up the its and bits and get it merged. Once that’s done, I’m already looking at my next feature to add, implementing drag-and-drop uninstallation into the app grid

A huge thank you goes out to my mentor, Adrian. His patience and guidance meant everything to me this summer. He didn’t just review my code; he took the time to help me really understand the bigger architectural picture. Because of him, I’ve grown so much as a developer. I loved how he would take the time to explain the deep history of Linux architecture to me, like how default applications and URL schemes eventually paved the way for XDG Intents. Combined with all the practical debugging techniques he showed me, he really helped me level up this summer.

It’s been an amazing ride, and I’m so excited to continue my journey with GNOME and the open source world!