The Full-Screen Terminal Trap
In Ubuntu Linux (using the default GNOME desktop environment), there is a window management feature designed to maximize efficiency called window tiling. If you drag the GNOME Terminal window by its title bar and your mouse cursor touches the very top edge of the screen, Ubuntu will display a brief visual outline and then automatically expand the terminal to fill the entire monitor. While this is great for immersive, full-screen code editing, it is highly annoying if you just wanted to move the terminal slightly higher to see a document underneath it. A sloppy mouse drag instantly ruins your carefully arranged multi-window layout.
How to Disable Window Tiling
This automatic maximization behavior is not specific to the Terminal; it affects all applications in GNOME. You can disable this “Edge Tiling” behavior globally through a built-in GNOME configuration tool.
Since the default Settings application does not always expose this deep window management toggle, the most reliable method is using the command-line configuration editor, gsettings.
1. Open your Terminal (ironically, you will need it for this step).
2. Type or paste the following command exactly as written:
gsettings set org.gnome.mutter edge-tiling false
3. Press Enter.
The change takes effect immediately without requiring a restart or logging out. Now, grab your Terminal window and drag it aggressively into the top panel of your screen. It will simply bump against the top edge and remain exactly the size you set it, rather than snapping to a full-screen layout.
How to Re-Enable Edge Tiling
If you find that you miss the ability to drag windows to the left or right edges of the screen to quickly create a split-screen layout (which is also disabled by the command above), you can easily revert the setting.
1. Open the Terminal.
2. Run the following command:
gsettings set org.gnome.mutter edge-tiling true
3. Press Enter, and all snapping and auto-expanding behaviors will immediately return to their factory defaults.