How to turn your Linux desktop into a middle ground between ChromeOS and macOS

Technology

Google with ChromeOS and Apple with macOS have shown us how it is possible to create functional graphic interfaces that are also beautiful and elegant. Here then is the question: why not transform our Linux desktop by taking the best of both?

With the power of Linux and with the ductility of the KDE desktop environment, the challenge is far from difficult. In fact, thanks to the community of artists that populate the open-source world, this is disarming: a few clicks and your system will become in a flash more beautiful than ChromeOS and more elegant than macOS.

Video and how-to

Check the passages on this video and find where to change the options

RYLD is the Rice Your Linux Desktop slogan. Follow the passages on this video and find where to change the settings and options. You can download the most part of the customization directly from the panels in System Settings under the KDE desktop environment.

Press the Application Button (or use the SUPER key) and digit System Settings.

  • Set Global Theme to Layan or download it with the ‘Get New Global Themes’ button.
  • Set Plasma Style to ChromeOS or download it with the ‘Get New Plasma Styles’ button.
  • Set Application Style to Breeze and Windows Decoration to Layan, also set GNOME/GTK Application Style to Breeze Dark.
  • Set Colors to Layan colors settings.
  • Set Icons to Tela Circle Blue Dark or download them with the ‘Get New Icons’ button.

Right-click on the desktop background and select Configure Desktop.

  • Download the wallpaper from here.
  • On the Wallpaper tab, select Add Image and select the location where you downloaded the wallpaper pic.
  • Download the Inactive Blur Plasma plug-in from here.
  • And run this $ kpackagetool5 -t Plasma/Wallpaper -i ~/Downloads/inactiveblur-v3.zip in a terminal.

To remove ugly borders on windows, open a terminal session:

$ vim ~/.local/share/aurorae/themes/Layan/Layanrc

Change these values from 10 to 12:

PaddingBottom=12
PaddingLeft=12
PaddingRight=12
PaddingTop=12

To make the Application Button more pretty:

  • Download the new button from here.

Then, open a terminal window and digit:

$ unzip ~/Downloads/start.zip

$ mv ~/.local/share/plasma/desktoptheme/ChromeOS/icons/start.svg ~/.local/share/plasma/desktoptheme/ChromeOS/icons/start-old.svg #backup the original file

$ mv ~/Downloads/start.svg ~/.local/share/plasma/desktoptheme/ChromeOS/icons/start.svg

To improve your terminal experience, Starship brings the best-in-class speed and safety of Rust, to make your prompt as quick and reliable as possible.

  • Check the ‘Get Started’ page to quickly install it.

In a terminal window:

$ vim ~/.config/starship.toml

And edit like this or check the documentation to do your own:


# Don't print a new line at the start of the prompt
add_newline = true 

# Replace the "❯" symbol in the prompt with "➜"
[character]
symbol = "➜"
error_symbol = "✗"
use_symbol_for_status = true

# Disable the package module, hiding it from the prompt completely
[package]
disabled = false

[directory]
truncation_length = 5
prefix = ""
suffix = ""

[hostname]
ssh_only = false
prefix = "⟪"
suffix = "⟫"
trim_at = "."
symbol = ""
disabled = false

[memory_usage]
disabled = false
show_percentage = true
show_swap = true
threshold = -1 
symbol = ""
separator = "-"
style = "bold dimmed green"
prefix = ""

[time]
disabled = false
format = "[ %T ]"
utc_time_offset = "+1"

[username]
show_always = true
suffix = ""

A requisite for Starship is a Powerline font installed and enabled in your terminal.

Download Fira Code Font from here and in a terminal session:

$ unzip ~/Downloads/FiraCode-master.zip

$ cp -R ~/Downloads/FiraCode-master/distr ~/.local/share/fonts/FiraCodeFonts

In the end, Log Out and Log In to your system to make all the changes effective.

References

All that you need is here: the theme, the wallpaper, the modification, the icons and all the remain items. Feel free to ask in comments if you need help on how to patch these things.