The Gnome Shell is basically a desktop environment that permits for a whole lot of customization. Along with the right tools and determination, and it’s possible to take the vanilla Gnome experience and then transform it into something truly unique. If this sounds just like something you’d like to do, however, you’ve never given it a go because of the fact that it can be time consuming, then you’re in for a treat.Now introducing the Gnome Layout Manager. It’s actually a tool to use with the Gnome Shell that permits the users to download “profiles”. These profiles can actually change the entire look of the desktop in a matter of seconds and make Gnome look like Mac, Windows, or Unity as well. In ths article, we are going to talk about Make Gnome Look Like Mac, Windows, and Unity. Let’s begin!
Contents
Installing Gnome Layout Manager
The layout manager is basically a shell script, hosted on github. In order to get this code, open a terminal and install the Git package, since you’ll need it in order to interact with Github.
Ubuntu
sudo apt install git
Debian
sudo apt-get install git
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S git
Fedora
sudo dnf install git
OpenSUSE
sudo zypper install git
Other
Git is a really famous package. As a result, users can acually find it almost anywhere. If your Linux-based operating system is not on the list, then just don’t worry! Just open up a terminal and use your package manager in order to search for “git”. Then, you can install it the way you’d install many other bits of software on your PC.
With git installed, we can also grab the layout manager from the developer’s website. Just do this with:
git clone https://github.com/bill-mavromatis/gnome-layout-manager.git
Make Gnome Look like Unity
Recently, some big news broke actually. Canonical, the developers of famous Linux operating system Ubuntu are moving away from a desktop environment they’ve spent almost a decade on actually. That’s right, they’re now getting rid of Unity! For some in the Linux community, and also this is a really great thing. This is because the subject of Unity is a deeply divisive subject as well (even 7 years later, it still is).
Ubuntu developers have decided to rather take the increasingly famous Gnome Shell desktop environment and make it their own. If you guys are a Unity fan, you may be a bit upset along with this news. Not to worry! With the Gnome Layout Manager, it’s actually possible to completely transform the Gnome Shell into Ubuntu’s Unity! Here’s how you can do it!
- First, you have to enter the source code directory for the layout manager:
cd gnome-layout-manager
- Then, open the layout manager script.
./layoutmanager.sh
- Inside the layout manager, just tap on the “save” option to backup your Gnome layout before proceeding. Then, you can also use the command to-reopen the layout manager. From here, choose the option “Unitylayout” as well.
The terminal window used to open the layout manager will start executing a lot of commands. Soon after, it will complete, and your Gnome Shell desktop will actually look like Ubuntu Unity!
Make Gnome Look like Windows
Many times windows users who switch to Linux long for the simplicity of the Windows desktop actually. Having a single panel, a search box and also a launcher is a nice touch. Along with Windows 10, the design has gotten way more modern. And along with Gnome Layout Manager, you can also experience the same look on Linux! Start the process through entering the script directory:
cd gnome-layout-manager
Launch the program with: ./layoutmanager.sh
Inside the chooser, just tap on the save option. This is so restoring the old desktop is easier as well. After that, just run the launch command in the terminal again, scroll down and chooe the “Windows 10 layout” option. Whenever you choose this option, be patient as many extensions will download too. Whenever complete, then your Gnome desktop will actually look like Windows 10.
Make Gnome Look like Mac
On the Linux platform, a lot of distributions take inspiration from the Mac desktop. Distributions such as Elementary OS and many others work really hard in order to make an almost-identical Mac experience. Gnome can also do this too. With the help of the Gnome Layout Manager, you guys can transform your Linux desktop into something Mac-inspired as well.
As always, cd into the directory and then open the script:
cd gnome-layout-manager ./layoutmanager.sh
Make sure to click the save button before even starting. After saving, just run the command in order to start the script a second time, and then find “Mac OS layout”. When you select it, the terminal will then download all of the needed extensions and turn your Gnome desktop into something just like Mac OS.
Restore Everything
Over the course of this tutorial, we have ve repeatedly instructed you to save your layout. This is because the Gnome Layout Manager does really heavy changes to the desktop. If you guys are already running a customized Gnome setup, then chances are the layout tool will completely ruin what you had before hand. Luckily, it’s possible to restore as well.
Just launch the layout manager along with the ./layoutmanager.sh command, and then choose “load”. The terminal will then scan the directory for your save file, and automatically restore everything back to normal as well.
Conclusion
Alright, That was all Folks! I hope you guys like this article and also find it helpful to you. Give us your feedback on it. Also if you guys have further queries and issues related to this article. Then let us know in the comments section below. We will get back to you shortly.
Have a Great Day!
