Have you ever seen a Mac? Cool isn’t it? You’ll be amazed with the view of the desktop, the animation and the widget. Well, if you want to have a Mac lookalike, there are many transformation pack for your Ubuntu desktop, the famous one is Mac4Lin that could transform your standard Ubuntu to a cool Mac lookalike.
But if you don’t want an extreme Mac look, but still want Mac’s gadget on your Ubuntu (the Intrepid one I mean), you could have it without downloading the Mac4Lin or even adding a repo. Here’s the way.
WIndow Switcher
If you want to select the windows in a Mac, you just have to bring your mouse at the corner of the desktop (I forgot which side) and then all opened windows would be scaled in a smaller size with cool animation. For this function in Ubuntu, you need to install Compiz first via Add/Remove tool.
After your Compiz installed go to System > CompizConfig Settings Manager > Window Management, click at the ‘Scale’ icon, then you could look that actually we could initiate this function with ++up buttons, but if you want to do it the Mac way press Intitiate Window Picker with the screen icon at the left, then you’ll have to choose which side of the screen to activate the function, I’ll choose the bottom right for this one, because it wont disturb, the Main Menu, Shutdown, or Show Desktop button. There would be a problem if you want to click the trash icon, but it’s rarely use rather than three others.
After that, try the function with bring your mouse to your chosen corner, and look at the scaling function, it’s cool!!
Window Manager
If you want the window manager at the bottom of your screen to be Mac lookalike then try installing Avant Window Navigator (AWN), you could install it with Add/Remove tool. After that you’ll get a plain AWN with no applet. If you are using the Hardy Heron one, you need to get the applet by adding another repo, I have tried it and worked, but when I update my Ubuntu to Intrepid, it crashed. Luckily Intrepid is the first Ubuntu to provide the applets on it’s standard repo, so install the extra applet by using Synaptic Package Manager.
Try it by go to Applications > Accessories > Avant Window Navigator, modify your AWN look as you like, then you could delete the bottom panel from your desktop. I’m not finished yet, because AWN doesn’t start automatically at Login, go to System > Preferences > Sessions, at the Sessions Preferences Window click ‘Add’ button then fill as the picture below, then click ‘Save’. Your AWN is ready to use when you logged in.
Screen Applet
The last one is the screen applet, there’s two options for this one, you could use the gDesklets of Screenlets. I prefer the Screenlets one, it’s better than gDesklets. Install it using Add/Remove tool, after that select your applets.
Don’t forget to click ‘Auto start on login’ at the applet, your applet is ready to use now.
Have a nice try!!
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Anton Hermansyah
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