The GameBar Overlay is a brand-new GNOME extension that offers a similar experience to Microsoft Game Bar on Linux, providing a quick overview of current time and volume control with the Win+G shortcut.
At first glance, it might seem like a very basic tool—why would anyone need an additional tool just to check volume and time, like the Microsoft Game Bar? Well, you're not entirely wrong, as it currently doesn't offer much to attract users.
However, the developer Dekotale has mentioned a (kind of) roadmap for the project's future, which explicitly lists features such as screenshot, weather, battery, brightness, CPU and GPU usage, and temperature that might be added soon.
Well, since there’s no set time duration given, it depends entirely on the project maintainer. However, if major contributors are involved, it might take less time. But once the mentioned features are added, I believe it would be a great alternative to the Microsoft Game Bar available for Linux.
I'm particularly excited about the screenshot, battery, and resource usage features, as they are my go-to options while playing games (occasionally) on the Windows PC, especially the screenshot feature, which I use frequently to capture the best moments during gameplay.
The rise of these types of tools, as well as the community's active involvement in improving Linux as a gaming platform, indicate that the day when gamers can fully rely on Linux (with compatibility for all games) for PC gaming is very near.
Now, if this tool has caught your interest, be sure to visit its GNOME extension page, where you can install it directly from your browser on a Linux system running GNOME 46, provided you have the GNOME Shell extensions installed.
