Linux Mint is famous for offering a familiar Windows-like desktop experience, but did you know it's also one of the most customizable distros—with built-in tools to tweak its look and feel? To give you an idea of what's possible, here's how I made Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition look like macOS.
For this guide, I am using Linux Mint's Cinnamon Edition. While the Xfce and MATE editions are also highly configurable and can be made to look like macOS, they won't follow the exact process as shown here.
Step 1: create the two-panel macOS layout
By default, Cinnamon gives you a single panel at the bottom that functions like the Windows taskbar. However, you can easily move it to any edge of the screen. Simply right-click an empty space on the panel, click Move, and then click the red placeholder that appears along the top edge of the screen.
Next, you'll want a panel at the bottom to function like the macOS Dock. For this, we're going to install an app called Plank. Open the terminal and run the following command:
Once installed, open the app launcher, search for Plank, and launch it. You'll now see an icon-only dock appear at the bottom of the screen.
To make it behave more like the macOS Dock, open the terminal again and run:
This opens Plank's settings window. Enable the "Icon Zoom" option, and when you hover over apps in the dock, they'll magnify—just like on macOS.
Step 2: clean up the top panel
Now that Plank is handling your pinned and running applications, you don't need those app icons cluttering the top panel anymore. To remove them, right-click an empty space on the top panel, click Panel Edit Mode, again right-click the app icons and select Remove "Grouped Window List" to remove the applet entirely.
Next, focus on the right side of the panel—specifically the time and date. To make it look more like macOS, right-click it and select Configure. This opens a new settings window. Enable "Use a Custom Date Format", then enter the following in the Date Format field: %a %b %e %H:%M. This displays the day, date, and time in a more compact, macOS-style format.
One final (and completely optional) change is replacing the Linux Mint icon in the app launcher. Ideally, you could swap it for the Apple logo. However, to retain its Linux roots, I prefer using the official Cinnamon logo instead—it looks polished and fits the aesthetic well. To do this, right-click the App Launcher, click Configure, then select Icon to browse your available icon set.
The main thing missing from the top panel is a global app menu. Unfortunately, there's no reliable way to get this functionality working on Mint, so this remains one of the key differences from macOS.
Step 3: Apply macOS themes and icon packs
At this point, Linux Mint already resembles macOS in terms of layout. Now it's time to work on the visual design and make it aesthetically closer to Apple's operating system. To do that, you'll need to install a theme and an icon pack.
Head over to GNOME Look and search for the Space theme . It's a relatively new macOS-style theme that I've grown quite fond of. Scroll down the page, switch to the Files tab, and download all three files (don't click Install). Next, search for the Hatter icon pack and download that as well.
GNOME Look has dozens of macOS-style themes and icon packs, and most of them work well on Linux Mint. I chose these two purely based on personal preference, not compatibility. You are free to try any theme or icon pack that catches your eye.
Once both the theme and icon pack are downloaded and extracted, you need to move them to the correct directories. Move the Space theme folders into the ~/.themes directory (create it if it doesn't exist). Then move the Hatter icon pack into the ~/.icons directory.
The easiest way to do this is using Nemo—the default file manager. Open Nemo and press F3 to enable dual-pane view. In the right pane, navigate to your Downloads folder (or wherever you extracted the files). In the left pane, go to your Home directory and press Ctrl+H to show hidden folders. You should now see the .themes and .icons directories. Drag the extracted theme folders into .themes, and the icon pack into .icons.
If you don't see the ~/.themes or ~/.icons directories, you'll need to create them. Right-click an empty area in the file manager, select Create New Folder, and name them .themes and .icons respectively. Make sure to include the leading period (.) which marks it as a hidden folder.
Once that's done, open Settings and go to Themes > Advanced Settings. From here, you can customize the cursor, application theme, icons, and desktop appearance. I'm using Bibata-Modern-Classic for the cursor, Space-Light for Applications, Hatter for Icons, and Space-Light again for the Desktop.
Here's how my Linux Mint desktop looks after applying these changes:
Step 4: Add spotlight-like search functionality
One of the best features of macOS is Spotlight, and you can get a similar experience on Linux Mint using Ulauncher. To install it, you'll need to add its PPA repository . Open the terminal and run the following commands in order:
Once installed, press Ctrl+Space to launch Ulauncher and start searching through your list of installed apps or even run web searches. You can customize Ulauncher by clicking the cogwheel icon in the search bar, which opens its settings window.
Step 5: Adding the finishing touches
Even after all these tweaks, if Linux Mint still doesn't quite capture the macOS vibe, it's probably because you're looking at the dark wallpaper with a large Linux Mint logo. So let's change that.
Head to Settings > Backgrounds and pick one of the cooler-looking wallpapers from the available selection. I'm using the Torres del Paine wallpaper, which gives off strong macOS Sierra vibes. Of course, you can also download third-party wallpapers, or even Apple wallpapers, and use those for further customization.
Furthermore, while navigating the OS, you might also notice that the window buttons are positioned in the top-right corner, similar to Windows. To move them to the top-left—where they appear on macOS—go to Settings > Windows and change Buttons Layout to Left.
At this point, Linux Mint should closely resemble a macOS setup—enough to fool most people at a quick glance. The final step is making sure your setup persists across system restarts . To do this, open Settings > Startup Applications and add both Plank and Ulauncher. All other customizations will persist automatically across reboots.
And there you have it—Linux Mint Cinnamon transformed to look and feel like macOS. While it's not a perfect replica and lacks features like the global menu, Notification Center, and other macOS-specific interface elements, it's still a compelling way to enjoy the macOS aesthetic without stepping into Apple's closed ecosystem.
