How to Get Mac OS Style Dock Launcher in Ubuntu 19.10

gnomelogo

This quick tutorial shows how to customize the left panel in Ubuntu 19.10 Gnome desktop to make it look like Mac OS Dock launcher.

The left panel in Ubuntu 19.10 is handled by Gnome Shell extension called ‘Ubuntu Dock‘, a fork of Dash to Dock extension.

The ‘Ubuntu Dock’ is highly customizable though the default Settings utility offers only a few options.

dock2macstyle

1. Move the left dock launcher to bottom.

First search for and open Settings utility from application menu.

Go to Dock settings in left pane, then set “Position on screen” to bottom.

dock2bottom

2. Shorten the dock launcher.

The dock launcher is by default extended to all the available height (width). You can disable this feature by running single command in terminal (open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T):

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock extend-height false

gsettings-extendheight

Hate Linux commands? You can do this by a graphical tool called dconf editor (Install it in Ubuntu Software)

In dconf editor, navigate to org/gnome/shell/extensions/dash-to-dock, then scroll down and disable the key value of ‘extend-height

disable-extend

3. Move Show Applications button to the left.

You may also do some more configuration, e.g., moving the Application Menu button to the left.

And this can be done via a single command in terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock show-apps-at-top true

gsettings-appontop

Or open dconf editor, navigate to org/gnome/shell/extensions/dash-to-dock, and enable the key value of ‘show-apps-at-top’.

appmenu-left

4. Add Trash icon onto dock launcher.

If you’d like to add the Trash can onto the dock, simply run command in terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock show-trash true

gsettings-showtrash

And this can be done via dconf editor, by navigating to the same directory, and enabling the ‘show-trash‘ key value.

trash-ondock

That’s it. Enjoy!

About ml

ml is a part time stay-at-home dad who've been using Ubuntu Desktop for a few years. He writes in the free time and wishes to share some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers.

6 comments

  1. Nice, thanks it all worked except for the Trash one, which is not a problem.

  2. José Marcelo Alves

    Thanks a lot. Everything is right, including the Trash icon.

  3. Worked like a charm and looks gorgeous! Thanks a lot!

  4. Thank Mate! Yeah i got it working. I’m always excited having this little tricks works! Im new in using ubuntu actually and im learning a lot so far.

  5. Thanks a lot, I got what I wanted!

  6. Thanks – very helpful

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