If you need your Mac to boot from the Ubuntu USB, the Ubuntu website has a detailed guide explaining how to dd the disk image onto a USB. Alternatively, if you have access to Windows, download Rufus. When selecting the image type, choose DD and select your desired ISO file (Ubuntu ISOs are hybrid, meaning they can either be copied in ISO or DD. Download Ubuntu desktop, Ubuntu Server, Ubuntu for Raspberry Pi and IoT devices, Ubuntu Core and all the Ubuntu flavours. Ubuntu is an open-source software platform that runs everywhere from the PC to the server and the cloud.
Changes are a part of nature, and this is also the case with technology. As time progresses, technology keeps on evolving and advancing through new and revolutionary changes. Ubuntu is the perfect example of this, as it has seen remarkable growth in its infrastructure. From what was once a simple server-based architecture, to now being used as the primary Linux distribution for desktops, this clearly shows how far Ubuntu has come.Ubuntu has made quite the name for itself in the industry and has quickly become one of the fastest-growing operating systems in today’s market. Being free and open-source, along with having a smooth and silky interface, has made Ubuntu a worthy challenger for Windows and Mac OS. One fascinating aspect about Ubuntu that has made it so sought-after among users is how easily customizable this distro is.Users can tweak and play around with the settings in Ubuntu and change it with regards to their interests. These include changing themes, design, and even the layout of the interface.
This article shows you how to customize Ubuntu 20.04 to look like Mac OS, a series of operating systems developed by Apple.
Prerequisites: Installing the Required Packages
Before customizing Ubuntu, you will first need to install some required packages that will aid you in this process. The first is the Gnome Tweaks tool, which allows you to tweak and change the look and behavior of Ubuntu. To install this tool, open the terminal via the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + T or from the Ubuntu Dash and run the following commands in the terminal:
$ sudo apt upgrade
$ sudo apt install gnome-tweaks -y
Next, install the GNOME Shell Extension package, which adds further functionality to your Ubuntu system. To install this package, run the following command in the terminal:
After installing this package, restart your system.
After installing GNOME Extensions, you will also need to switch on the User Themes extension. To do this, open the Gnome Tweaks tool, and then select the Extensions section. Here, scroll down a bit, and you will see the User Themes option. Click on the switch to turn on the User Themes extension.
Step 1: Install Mac OS GTK Theme
Once you are done installing the prerequisites, it is now time to move on to the first step of making your Ubuntu look like Mac OS, which involves the installation of a Mac OS GTK Theme. To download a theme for your Ubuntu system, go to the gnome-look website and search for the theme you want. This website gives you multiple options, and you can also filter the themes according to date of release and user rating.
Some great Mac OS themes include McMojave, Catalina, McHigh Sierra, and so on. We will be using the McMojave theme in this tutorial. To download the theme, click on the Files section, and then click the download button next to the theme you want to install.
Files Section:
Download Button:
After downloading these files, go to the home directory and press Ctrl + H to show the hidden folders and files. If you do not see the .themes folder, then create a new folder with the .themes name and extract and copy the folders that you downloaded to this directory.
Now, once again, open the tweaks tool and select the Appearance section. Here, change the Applications and Shell theme. You will see an instant change.
Step 2: Install Mac OS Icons
The next step in making Ubuntu look like Mac OS is to install icons that look similar to those in Mac OS. The process is mostly similar to what we did in Step 1. Once again, go to the gnome-look website and search for the icons that you want. Some good options include McMojave-circle, Mojave CT-icons, Cupertino icons, and so on. We will be using the McMojave-circle icon set in this tutorial. The process for downloading the icons is the same as the one described for the theme in Step 1.
After downloading your icon set, go to the home directory and this time, look for the .icons folder. If this folder is not present, create a new folder with the .icons name and extract and copy the folders that you downloaded to this directory.
Again, open the Appearance tab in the tweaks tool, and this time, change the Icons theme.
The icons should now look something like this:
Step 3: Change the Wallpaper
The third step is to change the wallpaper of your Ubuntu system to something that matches that of Mac OS. You can find some really good wallpapers from oswallpapers. To change your wallpaper, right-click on your desktop and select the Change Background option.
Click the Add Picture option in the top right-hand side and select the wallpaper you downloaded.
Your screen should look something like this:
Step 4: Add a Mac OS Dock
The fourth step involves getting a Dock similar to the one in Mac OS. There are numerous external options available for Linux, such as Plank, Cairo Dock, Dash to Dock, and so on. In our case, however, we will just be adjusting the settings of the original Dock.
Open Settings and go to the Appearance tab. Here, under the Dock options, switch on the Auto Hide feature and change the position of your Dock to Bottom.
Next, run the following commands in the terminal to further customize your dock:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock dash-max-icon-size 40
The final result should look something like this:
Step 5: Change the System Fonts
The official font used in Mac OS is San Francisco. Download the font, extract it, and install it by clicking on the .otf file.
After installing the font, once again, open the Tweaks tool and select the Fonts section. Change the fonts of the various options to San Francisco.
And, voilà! You are done. Your Ubuntu 20.04 should now look quite similar to Mac OS.
Making Ubuntu 20.04 Look Like Mac OS
Ubuntu is a highly customizable operating system that allows users to easily tweak and configure it according to their interests and needs. For users that want to experience using Mac OS or who just switched from Mac OS to Ubuntu, you can easily customize your Ubuntu system to look like Mac OS by following the steps shown above.
Do you want to make Ubuntu look like Mac OS X? If so, we’re going to show you how to do it, step-by-step.
The whole point of using Linux is that you can do things like this
It doesn’t matter whether you have a bad case of Apple envy, or you simply appreciate the design aesthetic of Apple’s OS; there’s nothing wrong with aping the appearance of a rival operating system.
After all, the whole point of using Linux is that you are free to do things like this — and hey: you certainly can’t make macOS look like Ubuntu!
How To Make Ubuntu Look like a Mac
A stack of mac GTK themes, icon sets, fonts and cursors are available for Linux, just a quick Google away.
The ones included below are the ones we use/think give you the best Mac-like look on your Linux box, But don’t be afraid to explore DeviantArt, GitHub and other avenues if our choices don’t quite match with your tastes.
1. Pick the Right Desktop Environment
GNOME Shell
To achieve the most Mac-like look on Linux you need to use the most appropriate desktop environment and that is GNOME Shell.
This is not a slight against other desktop environments (DEs) as Unity, Budgie, MATE and Cinnamon can all be moulded to resemble Cupertino’s computing OS too.
But GNOME Shell is the most customisable desktop environment. This is a key ask in a task like this. GNOME Shell lets you theme and re-arrange everything you need to with the least amount hackery or fuss.
If you’re using Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or later you already have everything you need to get started, so skip ahead.
But if you don’t have GNOME Shell installed on Ubuntu you will need to install it first.
This is easy. Just click the button below and follow in the on-screen prompts (select ‘lightdm’ as the display manager when asked):
You’re also going to need to the GNOME Tweaks tool in a few steps time, so install that now too:
Once both installations are complete you need to logout and select the ‘GNOME Shell’ session from the Unity Greeter:
A word on using Unity
One thing GNOME Shell can’t offer, that the Unity desktop can, is global menu support.
Now, I don’t consider this to be a negative as more and more applications use use Client Side Decorations, making the need for a global menu redundant.
But if having an omnipresent set of app menus stripped across the top of the screen is part of the Mac experience you don’t wish to lose, stick with Unity.
2. Install a Mac GTK Theme
The single easiest way to make Ubuntu look like a Mac is to install a Mac GTK theme.
Our top recommendation is the ‘macOS Mojave’ theme by Vinceluice. This is a near-enough pixel-perfect clone of Apple’s OS skin, and is available in light and dark versions. It’s one of the best designed Mac GTK themes out there (it also has a matching GNOME Shell theme).
The ‘macOS Mojave’ theme requires GNOME 3.20 or later, so you’ll need to be running Ubuntu 16.10 or later to use it.
If you’re running the older Ubuntu 16.04 LTS release you can use the competent ‘macOS Sierra’ clone created by the B00merang project:
Tip: How To Install GTK Themes
Once you download your chosen macOS theme from the link(s) above, you will need to install it.
To install themes in Ubuntu first extract the contents of the archive you downloaded, then move the folder inside to the ~/.themes folder in your Home directory.
If you do not see this folder press Ctrl + H to reveal hidden folders. Next, find the .themes folder or create it if it doesn’t exist. Move the extract folder mentioned above to this folder.
Finally, to change theme, open GNOME Tweak Tool > Appearance and select your chosen theme (and the GNOME Shell theme, if you also downloaded one).
3. Install a Mac Icon Set
Next grab some a Mac Icon set for Linux. A quick Google will throw up a bunch of results. Most, sadly, aren’t complete enough to function as a full icon set, so you’ll also want to use (and in some cases manually specify) a fall back icon theme like Faba, or Papirus.
To avoid all of that hassle you may wish to use the fabulous ‘La Capitaine‘ icon pack.
Easy Connect Ubuntu
What’s great about La Capitaine is that it’s a proper Linux icon set, with custom macOS inspired icons for many Linux apps and not just a direct port of mac icons to Linux. It’s also totally open-source, and is available to download from Github.
How to Install Icon Themes
Once you’ve downloaded your chosen theme from the link(s) above you need to install it. To do this first extract the contents of the archive you download, then move the folder inside to the ~/.icons folder in your Home directory.
If you don’t see this folder press Ctrl + H to view hidden folders. Next, find the .icons folder or create it if it doesn’t exist. Move the extract folder mentioned above to this folder.
Finally, to apply, open GNOME Tweak Tool > Appearance and select your chosen theme.
4. Change the System Font
If you’ve used Mac OS X / macOS at some point in the past few years you’ll know it has clean, crisp system typography.
‘Lucida Grande’ is the familiar Mac system font, though Apple uses a system font called ‘San Franciso’ in recent releases of macOS.
A quick Google should turn up plenty more information (and links to download San Francisco font) but be aware that neither font is not licensed for distribution — so we can’t link you to it, sorry!
Thankfully there’s an open-source alternative to ‘Lucida Grande’ called Garuda. It’s even pre-installed out of the box on Ubuntu, so you don’t need to go on a font safari to find it.
Head to GNOME Tweak Tool > Fonts and set the ‘Windows Titles’ and ‘Interface’ fonts to Garuda Regular (or any other font you wish).
If you use Unity you can use Unity Tweak Tool to change the font on Ubuntu.
5. Add a Desktop Dock
Ask people what a Mac desktop looks like and chances are they will mention its ubiqutious desktop dock. This is a combined application launcher and window switcher.
Ubuntu Bootable Usb Mac
If you opted to use GNOME Shell back in Step 1 install the excellent Dash to Dock extension from the GNOME extensions site. This dock can be adjusted, tweaked and tune to look exactly like its macOS counterpart.
Dash to Dock doesn’t look very mac-ish by default so you will want to dive in to the GNOME Tweak Tool > Extensions > Dash to Dock > Appearance to change the colour to white, and lower the opacity.
Ubuntu Mac Os Dock
Plank Dock
If you chose to stick with the Unity desktop you can set the Unity Launcher to hide (System Settings > Desktop > Behaviour) and install Plank, a desktop dock, to handle app launching and window switching:
Plank can be configured with all sorts of themes too, making it easy to replicate the Mac OS X experience. Gnosemite is a faithful mac Plank theme worth a look.
That’s it; we’ve achieved our aim to make Ubuntu look like a Mac — now it’s your turn.
We’d love to see a screenshot of your mac-inspired creation so do feel free to share one in the comments.