If you are using Xubuntu, Fedora xfce, Manjaro Xfce or any other linux distributions based on Xfce desktop environment and you like the look of latest macOS Catalina, then this is for you. Using the below methods you can change the your XFCE Desktop look to macOS Catalina. For this you need the Mc-OS CTLina XFCE theme, OS Catalina icons pack and the Plank dock.
Install MacOS Theme on XFCE:
First download the Mc-OS CTLina XFCE theme from the below download link.
It comes in two variant light and dark. If you like the dark theme also, then download the both. And save it to your Downloads folder. Open your terminal app (ctrl+alt+t) and run this command to navigate to your Downloads folder.
cd Downloads
Here the downloaded file name is “McOS-CTLina-XFCE.tar.xz” . You can change the below command based on your file name.
tar xvf McOS-CTLina-XFCE.tar.xz
Or you can also extract the downloaded tar file by right and extract here. if you don’t like the command line.
For dark theme use the below command.If you don’t like dark skip this step.
tar xvf Mc-OS-CTLina-XFCE-Dark.tar.xz
Open your Thunar file manager. Xfce comes with default Thunar file manager and go to your Home directory. usually its /home/”Your User name/“.
And click the View top menu and check the “Show Hidden Files” option.
And create a “.themes” [/home/USERNAME/.themes] folder by right click and create a new folder.
Now copy the two extracted themes folders from Downloads and paste to .themes folder . This will install theme per user level.
If you need the system level installation then paste these folders to your “/usr/share/themes/” folder. For this you need the root access. In terminal run this command to open file manage in root mode.
sudo -E thunar
And copy and paste your files to “/usr/share/themes/” folder.
Then download OS Catalina Icon theme from the below link and Save it to your Downloads folder.
Here the downloaded file name is “Os-Catalina-icons.tar.xz” and for night dark icons “Os-Catalina-Night.tar.xz”
Then extract using below commands or you can extract right click on the file and select extract here.
cd Downloads
tar xvf Os-Catalina-icons.tar.xz
tar xvf Os-Catalina-Night.tar.xz
If you get any errors ignore it. And download these icon themes and try to extract it.
Then create a “.icons” folder by right click and create a new folder in your home directory [/home/USERNAME/.icons]. Now copy the two extracted icons folders from Downloads and paste to .ions folder. This will install icons theme per user level.
If you need the system level installation then paste these folders to your “/usr/share/icons/” folder. open file manage in root mode.
sudo -E thunar
And copy and paste your files to “/usr/share/icons/” folder.
Then go to Settings->Appearance->Style and select McOS-CTLina-XFCE.
Then go to Settings->Appearance->Icons and select Os-Catalina
Then go to Settings->Window Manager and select McOS-CTLina-XFCE.
Then go to Settings->Window Manager Tweaks->compositor and select/check
Enable display compositing
Show windows preview in place of icons when cycling
Show shadows under popup windows
Show shadows under regular windows
Then uncheck
show shadows under docked windows
Install Plank for McOS style Dock in Xfce:
Open your terminal app and run the below commands one by one.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install plank
Type y and enter during installation to confirm it.
Then go all applications and open plank.
That’s all. Restart your OS.Now your desktop look like MacOS Catalina.
