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This is how I made Ubuntu look like macOS

This is how I made Ubuntu look like macOS

Key insights

  • Start by installing essential tools like GNOME Tweaks and GNOME Extensions.
  • Download and apply macOS-inspired themes, icons, fonts, and wallpapers.
  • Optimize all tools and settings to nail the macOS aesthetic.



Ubuntu’s default look and feel is unique, with its dock on the left and workflow focused on virtual desktops. But if you’re coming from macOS or just prefer Apple’s aesthetic, then Ubuntu will seem a bit off. Luckily, you can easily customize Ubuntu to look like macOS in just a few minutes.


When making system-level changes to your operating system, it is always a good idea to create a backup beforehand. This allows you to easily make adjustments and play around with the settings without worrying about breaking something.

In this guide I am using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. However, I also tested these tools on Ubuntu 24.10 and they work perfectly!

I’ll be using the terminal to set it up – but trust me, it’s not as scary as it sounds! Simply copy and paste the highlighted commands (Ctrl+Shift+V) into the terminal and you’re ready to go!


Let’s start by updating your system. Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and paste these two commands one after the other:

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

If your system is up to date, enter this command to install GNOME Shell Extension Manager and GNOME Tweaks:

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks gnome-shell-extension-manager

And the conditions are already created! It’s time to add the main ingredients!

Installing the extensions

We need the following GNOME extensions to make Ubuntu work like macOS.

  • User Topics
  • Searchlight
  • Blur my shell
  • Jump to the dock
  • Gnome 4x UI improvements
  • Logo menu
  • Moveclock
  • Compiz-like magic lamp effect


Installing the required GNOME extensions for macOS theming

To install these extensions, open the Extension Manager app, go to the Browse tab, search for the mentioned extensions and enable them. Once activated, you will notice that the appearance of your Ubuntu desktop will change. In a later section, I’ll show you how to adjust extension settings to optimize macOS workflow. Let’s get everything we need done first!

Installing tools: macOS theme, icon pack, wallpaper and font

These extensions allow Ubuntu to function more like macOS. However, to make the look perfect we need to download:


To download the files, open the corresponding GitHub pages, click the green Code button, and click Download ZIP. Once downloaded, unzip the ZIP file, open the folder, right-click inside the folder and select “Open in Terminal”.

Now just copy and paste the following commands into the terminal one by one.

./install.sh

This will install the theme on your system.

sudo ./tweaks.sh -g

This will install a GNOME Display Manager (GDM) theme and change the lock screen to look like macOS.


./tweaks.sh -F -f default

This will make Firefox look more like Safari and install the theme for Flatpak apps (if you use them).

Installing the Whitesur GTK theme

In order for the Flatpak theme to work, you also need to run an additional command:

sudo flatpak override --filesystem=xdg-config/gtk-4.0

Likewise, to install the wallpapers, unzip the file, open the terminal in the folder and run the following commands one after the other:

./install-gnome-backgrounds.sh

./install-wallpapers.sh

Install macOS wallpapers on Ubuntu


We follow the same process again and run these commands to install the font:

chmod +x ./tweak.sh

./tweak.sh

Install macOS fonts on Ubuntu

With this done, we can finally move on to installing the icon pack. To do this, go to the HOME folder using Nautilus (the default file manager) and press Ctrl+H to show all hidden folders. You should see a folder named .icons. However, if it doesn’t exist, create a new folder with that name. Now just extract the icon pack and move the extracted folder to the .icons folder!

Moving icon pack to hidden icons folder in Ubuntu


And that’s it! We have successfully installed everything we need. It’s time to optimize!

Configure the extensions

The default settings of most extensions are perfect. We just need to adjust the settings for some of them to optimize the macOS workflow. Let’s start with Dash to Dock. To access extension settings, open the Extension Manager app, then click the gear icon next to the extension you want to customize.

I will make the following changes:

  • On the Position and Size tab:
    • Position on screen = Bottom
    • Icon size limit = 64
    • Preview size scale = 0.30
    • Smart auto-hide = enabled
  • On the Starter tab:
    • Animate Show Applications = enabled
    • Show trash icon = enabled
  • On the Appearance tab:
    • Use integrated theme = enabled


Next, let’s tweak the Compiz-like magic lamp effect. This extension activates the Genie Effect of macOS. Since I feel that the default animation speed is a bit slow, I adjusted the duration to 250ms. However, feel free to experiment with it to get your preferred experience.

Compiz-like magic lamp effect

For Search Light, it enables a Spotlight-like feature on Ubuntu. We may be able to press Alt+Space to trigger Spotlight and search for something on our Ubuntu PC. In order for it to work properly, we must first go to Settings > Keyboard > Show and customize shortcuts. From here, change the “Activate Window Menu” shortcut to something else. Next, visit the Search Light extension settings and assign Alt+Spacebar as the keyboard shortcut for the search function.


Finally, let’s tweak the settings of the logo menu extension. You can assign a custom icon – preferably an Apple logo to complete the look. For this tutorial, I kept the Ubuntu logo as a tribute.

Logo menu icon configuration

Tweak system settings and give them the finishing touches

We are finally on the home stretch! Finally, visit the Settings app and make the following changes:


  • In Ubuntu desktop settings:
    • Uncheck Show Home Folder.
    • Disable Panel Mode
    • Increase the icon size to the maximum
    • Disable advanced tiling
  • When multitasking:
    • Enable hot corners for the mission control overview
    • Consider enabling active hot corners for window snapping
  • In Ubuntu appearance:
    • Change the background image
    • Set the accent color to blue (or your preference).

When you’re done, open the GNOME Tweaks apps and make the following final adjustments:

  • In the Window section, change the title bar buttons to the left.
  • Then go to Appearance and set the following:
    • Cursor = DMZ-White
    • Icons = Cupertino-Sonoma-iCons
    • Shell = WhiteSur-Dark
    • Legacy Applications = WhiteSur-Dark

GNOME optimizations enable theme


And that’s it! You have successfully customized Ubuntu to look like macOS!

The final results

This is what the standard Ubuntu 24.04 looks like:

Default Ubuntu 24.04 desktop look.

And this is Ubuntu after the macOS adjustments:

You now have the classic macOS Dock, replacing Ubuntu Dash. There’s a Spotlight-like search for quick access to files, apps or calculations. Desktop elements like the date and time, quick settings, and window buttons are all in familiar locations where a Mac user would expect them.

However, the transformation is not perfect! The topic did not apply uniformly to all apps. This is expected since Ubuntu 24.04 ships with GNOME 46, which is not very responsive to theming. Additionally, there is unfortunately no app menu, which is an iconic feature of macOS.


However, despite the drawbacks, this should help bring your Ubuntu PC to a higher level and make it more in line with macOS in appearance and functionality.