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.
Popular Alternatives to Your Freedom for Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, Linux and more. Explore 18 apps like Your Freedom, all suggested and ranked by the AlternativeTo user community.
- VLC Media Player. If you’re looking for free music apps for Mac, there are only a few that can compete with VLC Media Player. While predominantly a video player, VLC also offers a solid audio solution for music lovers.
- Freedom to be incredibly productive Freedom to do your best work from home Freedom to do what you love Freedom to work without distractions. Freedom is the app and website blocker for Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, and Chrome, used by over 1,000,000 people to reclaim focus and productivity.
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: Mac app install ninite.
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
Apps Like Freedom Mac Os
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.Apps Like Freedom Mac Download
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.
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.
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.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.
We're excited to share our new desktop app blocking feature with you! This document will explain what desktop app blocking does, and how to use this feature.
What is Desktop App Blocking?
Desktop app blocking enables Freedom to hide, or even quit, desktop apps during your Freedom session. This means that you can now block your access to mail clients, games, music streaming, editing software, word processors, and more. For example, let's say you've got a great game on your Mac that is distracting you when you're working. You'd simply add that game to your list of apps to block, and Freedom will hide (or quit) that game if you try to open it!
How to use Desktop App Blocking
To take advantage of desktop app blocking, first make sure you are using Freedom 1.6 or later. If you're not, please visit our downloads page to download and install the latest version of our Mac app.
Once you're on the correct version of the app, you'll click 'Manage Blocked Mac Apps' in the Freedom dropdown menu.
Next, a window will open up which allows you to select the apps you want to block. Click on the apps you'd like to block, and then press 'Save'
In this case, we're going to block Evernote, Chrome, and Mail. Once you've selected the apps you wish to block, press Save.
Finally, visit your dashboard and add 'Block Apps' to your session. This lets Freedom know when to turn on App Blocking when this blocklist is running.
Let's Recap
To get blocking working on a Mac, you need to:
How to convert ipad app into mac app. Your iPad app can be made into an excellent Mac app. Now’s the perfect time to bring your app to life on Mac. The latest version of Xcode 12 is all you need. Begin by selecting the “Mac” checkbox in the project settings of your existing iPad app to create a native Mac app that you can enhance further.
- Select the apps you wish to block with the Freedom desktop app.
- Add 'Block Apps' to your Session.
- When you run a Freedom session containing the Block Apps blocklist, the app blocking feature will turn on.
Hide vs Quit Apps
Desktop app blocking, by default, will hide blocked apps. We've found this to be a pretty useful approach - if you try to re-open the app, it hides instantly. However, if you'd like to actually quit the app, you can choose 'Kill Blocked Apps' in the Freedom desktop menu under Options -> Advanced. Please use caution with this setting, it will quit the app, potentially losing unsaved work if a Freedom session starts while you are working in an app you wish to block (e.g. drafting an email).
![Freedom Freedom](/uploads/1/3/4/2/134256578/728926822.jpg)
A few important points.
- You must select the apps you wish to block individually on your devices. Because there are so many different types of apps and installations, the apps you choose to block on your desktop only affect that device. So you'll need to set up the apps you wish to block on each device.
Still having trouble?
If you're having any difficulty, please feel free to send us an email at [email protected] or chat with us via the green chat bubble in the bottom right corner of the page. We're happy to help!