Give Ubuntu Jaunty An Apple Flavour

So this month i decide to give my laptop an apple flavor, God knows how much i hate Macs and some element of their interface, like  the lack of right click-right out of the box (i initially stated that right clicks doesn’t work out of the box because the mac mini we have at work doesn’t do right-clicks but i have been informed that right-clicking on the mac does work if you have the right mouse), most of all the lack of freedom and ownership it and every other proprietary Operating system makes me feel.

The cool thing about linux is that it can be made to  look like anything you want, and why you may never be able to tweak your Mac or Windows to look like Gnome, its the direct opposite with Linux you can pretty much tweak your Interface anyhow you want. This month i decided to bring some of the elements i love about the Mac interface and add it with the best of gnome. The Intention here is not to create a clone of the Mac interface hence i am not changing my logging screen or system sound to something MACi its more of bringing together what i like about Gnome and the OSX shell.

After  all said and done here is what i came up with

Recipe

*  gtk theme =  Gkt-theme MurrinaBlue (might not work well on ibex and lesser unless you are using the latest Murrine theme engine from svn)

* Emerald theme = Emerald – MurrinaBlue

* Icon =  Icon Theme Powered

* Fonts = Liberation ( Avaliable in the Ubuntu repositories)

* Wallpaper = Minimalistic Black and White

* Dock  = Gnome-do with the docky Interface

* Global Menu Bar for Gnome

So there you have it, This should be my default desktop look, till am bored again and need to try something new. or just return to the gnome old Default Gnome layout who knows

Gnome, Ubuntu.

  • Loco Ulysses
    I see no one has mentioned Cairo-dock, which can be made to look even more like the Mac dock. I still run Gnome-do though, just using the mini interface. Thanks for the post!
  • Saurabh
    I installed Gnome Global Menu and when I open Firefox it just says Firefox Web Browser and not menu items. Can you tell me why is this happening

    Thanks
    Saurabh
  • Hmm am not really sure what problem you are having. but fyi global menu thingie does not work with firefox which is not really a gtk app in the true sense of the word..
  • aubrey
    I have downloaded the themes and icons packages as you have stated, however, i cannot install it into my computer. Appreciate if you could give me some pointers.
  • Jorge
    Man I really love that emerald theme, downloaded it and its my favourite from now on. Iĺl check your blog more often to see what's new.

    Greetings from México
  • its also my favourite. Am glad you like it.

    Greetings from Nigeria
  • tylerbrainerd
    Yessss to Zim ftw.
  • @Anon if you read my post i used "may not" i didn't rule out the possibility of tweaking windows. just that its not as easy and legal as you would be able to do same on linux. :)

    about the under the hood customization of linux i completely agree with you, the real Power of linux is below the Graphical User Interface
  • Anon
    Fair enough, macs might be limited in customisation options, but Windows can be made to look like gnome just FYI. Giving false information like that at the start of the article, only serves to piss off the M$ fanboys and makes it look like you don't know what you're talking about (or at least haven't researched it all that well)

    Not that I can see the point in making Winblows look like gnome (human or other), windows is a legacy OS that needs to be ditched. Linux is the _only_ way forward.

    The customisation of Linux spans far greater than the interface. The beauty of Linux is you can alter *anything* without making yourself into a criminal. So go forth and hack my friends, hack like you never hacked before!!!!!

    over n out
    n3uro
  • @Bonnie thanks now i know better :)
  • Bonnie
    @Bigbrovar System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Secondary Button (works with Mighty Mouse, I think that right click works on classic PC mice out of the box, but nut sure). I hope this works on your iMacs...

    @dgrb Yeah, Enlightenment 17 looks great. I have been using e16 few years ago for about a month. It was nice, fast but I dont know... I felt somehow limited. E17 was totally unstable in that times.
  • I am very sorry for stating that right-clicks doesnt work on a mac, i have to say that am not an expert when it comes to macs, and i reached this conclusion because the mac mini we have at work which runs leopard doesnt support right clicks, even when i can use its mouse on ubuntu to right click. but anyway i have adjusted my initial post
  • Lee
    BOOOOOO.
  • Rob King
    "like the lack of right click"

    1992 called, they want their FUD back.
  • G&T
  • @dgrb wow that is create i have tried e17 sometimes back, and while i really love the unique concept beauty and simplicity it brings to the desktop. it still had some problems for everyday use. i hope most of this has been resolved.
  • dgrb
    Bonnie, the point about being able to make Gnome look like Windows or the Mac is simply that it is far more configurable than they are.

    However, if you really want something that looks as elegant (I'll give Apple elegance, even if I'm not prepared to give them anything else - I once had an entire Mac crash while running a spellcheck) as the Mac, try elive (http://www.elivecd.org/).

    And it does the dock thing you mention.

    As, for that matter, does avanti-window-navigator, which you can run with xfce and compiz.
  • @Bonnie well sorry for my lack of knowledge about the mac interface, we do have 5 mac mini at work all runing leopard and whenever i use it i noticed that right click doesnt work out of the box, i admit i didn't bother fiddling with the settings i just took it that that is the way mac works since its suppose to just work right? if you can confirm that right click works on a mac without much tweaking i am ready to adjust the sentence since that would make it misleading.

    about gnome.. while i feel gnome is one of the best computer GUI out there, its simple and very easy to customize and use, i also love KDE and i feel that kde4 is a step in the right direction, i run kdemod on my arch box but prefer gnome on my laptop.

    about the dock. its actually gnome-do (google it) with a dock interface called docky. docky, kills, murders, buries. any other dock made by man. its more than just a luncher, its also does some search function like if i want to listen to a track by u2 all i do is type u2 and the dock displays u2 tracks in rhythmbox which i can play by pressing enter. if i need to chat with a buddy on pidgin all i need is type the name of the buddy and as i type it displays a list of words that fits my type filtering it to the buddy list.. words cant describe it. its really really cool
  • Bonnie
    Wow! The first sentence shows you have lack of knowledge about the Mac interface :) Lack of right click? In what century do you live?

    BTW, the thing that Windows or Mac OS X don't give you opportunity to make them look like Gnome... Now who would do THAT? It is the Gnome users that want to make their Gnome to feel like something else. But now I feel like I am starting a flamewar. Sorry...

    The pics look great!

    Oh, I use KDE on my Linux machines and I was never able to get something that works like the dock on Mac OS X. I don't mean the weird zooming feature - it's the first thing I turn off (everywhere). But the overall feel - app icons that start the application if it is not running or focus the window if the app is running, the new Stacks and so... Does the Dock you have on your screenshot work like that?
  • @Konstantin thanks, it is my favourite too :)
  • Konstantin
    Wow! Cool setup :) Gonna be my favorite.
  • oh great .. thanks for finding time to let me know it worked for you. always a pleasure reading your blog too, and thanks for creating an English version :)
  • nobu^
  • wow that is good to hear, am glad to be of help. so what was the problem if i may know please
  • nobu^
    thanks, you too!

    btw, recently I was searching web for some linux question, and second link in google was u'r blog with the solution :)
  • Glad you like it and happy Easter btw :)
  • nobu^
    very nice & smooth, I feel like try it out :)
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