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gekosMac (GTK Theme) - Make Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Looks Like Mac OSX!

It's no secret that GNU/Linux community, Gnome developers (especially) are admirers of Apple's Mac OS usability. Although to be honest I haven't used it, but from the screenshots and few videos I've seen, Gnome desktop 2+ version (including the Shell as well) resembles Mac OSX look-n-feel heavily.

And when considering Unity's application dock, windows title buttons to the left-side, wallpaper etc and even Mark Shuttleworth said when asked whether he'd prefer iPhone over Android phones, he said, "Yes!"... so Natty Narwhal is also much closer to OSX.

In that sense if you want to make your GNU/Linux Laptop completely looks like a Mac OSX, then all you gotta do at this point is to install a theme!. Well then you might be interested in a GTK written theme for Gnome called gekosMac.

As you can see with below screenshot, in resembles Leopard and the creator advices you to install Nautilus elementary + the Faenza Mac icon theme after installing the main gekosMac GTK theme as well. Lets install the theme in 11.04 Natty Narwhal first.



1. Open your Terminal and enter the below command.
sudo apt-get install aurora
sudo apt-get install gtk2-engines-aurora
2. Use the below command to install Nautilus Elementary (remember, this is not necessary, but Elementary looks more like the OSX fm).
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:am-monkeyd/nautilus-elementary-ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade 
also make sure to restart Nautilus. To do that, use the below command.
nautilus -q
3. Now the final part. Lets install the FaenzaMac icon theme. Use the below command for that.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tiheum/equinox
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install faenza-icon-theme

If you don't like the buttons on the panel, then the developer advices that you do the following (quoting himself)...

#######IF YOU USE UNITY#########

Look at buttons in panel. You do not like this. You can fix that!!!!

0) All that is written to it except 4 step
1)You need to open terminal and write command

gksu nautilus

2)than go to /usr/share/themes
3) Backup Ambiance(copy to some place or add to archive)
4)extract Ambiance.tar.gz that you download
5)Replace folder that you extract from archive (delete Ambiance at /usr/share/themes and copy extract Ambiance theme to them)

THAT ALL Then Logot and login :)

That's it. Now you've successfully converted your Unity (also works on LinuxMint as well) to Mac OSX!. Enjoy.  

12 comments:

  1. Hey nice tut mate. We are interested in your work. If you like, you can join us www.warezlk.com. Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Irfad,

    Thanks dude. Nice site you have there :).

    ReplyDelete
  3. err~~ where to download the "Ambiance.tar.gz " ?

    ReplyDelete
  4. @KYH,

    Please use the below link and read it using your archive manager... you'll find "Ambiance.tar.gz" in it :D.

    http://gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/142074-gekosMac_files.zip

    Good luck.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I followed all the above steps, but the only changes I can see is in the panel and icons(most of them)... But the icons are still at the same place of the desktop as it was before for ubuntu. Please advise.

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  6. @Maniac (nothing personal dude, it's your name :D),

    Have you installed the "Faenza" mac Icon theme (link in the article)... this is necessary if you want the icons to look like Mac in your desktop...

    ReplyDelete
  7. I did it but it didn't really worked out... :/
    Is there any tutorial how to go back??
    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  8. @trelozakithinos,

    Well, um, you can replace the Ambiance theme with the original one and change the icon theme to the original Ubuntu theme...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey does this give you the MAC OS X taskbar thing along the bottom? Or will it still look like the unity one along the left hand side?

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  10. @Anonymous,

    Nope... it won't dude. The left-side arrogant Unity application launcher will always be there. But if you want a "mac dock thing" you can try something like the docky at the moment :)...

    ReplyDelete
  11. thx, can't wait for update ! gtk 3 please,

    ReplyDelete
  12. @Anonymous,

    Easy there mate! ;-).

    ReplyDelete