Make Ubuntu look like Mac OS X - the quick & easy way.

There is an easy way of getting your Ubuntu desktop look and feel like Mac OS X without installing a theme and going too over the top. What makes makes Mac OS X look distinct is the dock to launch applications. This is what we will focus on.



Step 1. We will install replace Ubuntu's unity launcher with a Mac OS X looking dock. Go to Ubuntu Software Center, and in the search bar type in 'Cairo Dock', and choose 'Cairo GLX-Dock' and click Install. The Ubuntu Software Center will automatically download and install the dock. After the installation completes, launch the Cairo Dock application.

Step 2. After launching Cairo Dock, you should see the dock appear on the bottom of your desktop. You will obviously see that it doesn't look much like the dock in Mac OS X, so what we will do next is change the actual appearance of the dock. To do that, hover over anywhere on the dock (e.g. an icon) and right click, the menu will pop up, then go to Cairo Dock / Configure. Now click on Themes and choose the Mac OSX theme, the click apply. You will now notice that the dock is now almost identical to dock on Mac OS X.

Step 3. Now that you have the dock done, you will notice that some of the icons are still default Ubuntu. You can change these icons and mask them with Mac OS X icons. For example, you can change 'LibreOffice Writer' with an 'iWork Pages' icon, 'Shotwell' with an 'iPhoto' icon etc. To change these icons, simply click on the icon, and select 'Modify this launcher' in the menu. In the launcher settings, click on Open under 'Images name or path', there you can select an icon from the theme. Not all icons are included in this theme so you will need to download extra Mac icons.

Step 4. Give your desktop wallpaper a Mac OS X wallpaper. In this example I have applied the default Mac OS X Lion desktop wallpaper. There are many Mac OS X wallpapers that you can download online. Finally, you can switch the UI theme from 'Ambiance' to 'Radiance' by going to Settings / Appearance.

The default Ubuntu desktop before the changes

The final result. The Ubuntu desktop looks almost identical to Mac OS X.

Your desktop now looks convincingly similar to Mac OS X. However some of Ubuntu's theme is still retained, I have kept the UI and windows the Ubuntu 'Radiance' theme. This theme is similar to Mac OS X, however you can change this to a Mac OS X theme if you like, there are many sites like gnome-look.org that offer that theme. Personally, I prefer to retain some of Ubuntu's theme and not make it a complete Mac lookalike. There is also a video tutorial I have attached that will give you a more discriptive process of making Ubuntu look like Mac OS X. Enjoy!