Building GNOME Apps with Rust, Part 1: Getting Started

This is Part 1 of a series that takes a GNOME application from an empty directory to acceptance into GNOME Circle. Each post is self-contained, but the series follows a single arc — and a real app — through every stage of the journey. Why GNOME If you're building a desktop Linux application in 2026, you've got choices. KDE Plasma has Kirigami. Elementary has Granite. You can reach for Electron, Tauri, or a dozen other cross-platform toolkits and call it a day. I chose GNOME because of what it feels like to use. The GNOME desktop provides a clean, distraction-free approach to computing. Its consistency rivals early macOS — there's a feeling that everything is in its place. When I started building Moments, my photo management app, that consistency carried over into the development experience in a way I didn't expect. The GNOME Human Interface Guidelines aren't suggestions — they're a design language. Follow them and your app inherits a coherent visual identity, consistent interaction pat