Unity-like Gnome

The Unity desktop wasn’t for everyone. That’s a

well attested fact. But for a considerable
number of users it was a workflow that
worked.

The outcry that came when Unity was replaced

by Gnome Desktop in Ubuntu 17.10 is
testament to the strength of feeling.

And the development of Ubports to continue

work on Unity 8, the work of people
persevering with Unity 7 (https://ubuntuunity.org/), and the more recent development of UnityX
(https://unityx.org/) show the effort some will go to continue to have Unity on their desktop.

However, it isn’t difficult now to get a very close to Unity experience in Gnome. Ubuntu tried this
with their provision of the dock, but this was really only a nod to Unity provision. How about
something a bit closer?

Well, have a look at this (and compare it with the original Unity in the picture above):

This was created by using Gnome Shell extensions. And you can do it too.
Getting a Unity-like Dock and Dash

First of all, replace Ubuntu Dock with Dock To Dash. Just install the extension from
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/307/dash-to-dock/ and activate it.

The extension will replace the current Ubuntu Dock but, since they share their settings, things will
look the same.

The additional settings in Dock to Dash allow you to move the applications launcher to the top, as
Unity had it. Of course you can play with other Dash to Dock settings to get Unity like colours and
icon backgrounds too.

Now add ArcMenu (https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/3628/arcmenu/) and activate the

extension. You should see that it automatically replaces the Applications Icon in Dock To Dash.

But when you select the ArcMenu icon you'll not get a very Unity like menu. We can fix that in the
ArcMenu settings, which you can access by right-clicking the ArcMenu icon.

In the ArcMenu settings, select Menu Layout and in the right hand pane select Unity from the
available layouts. Now the menu should look more like the Unity dash. You'll notice that the
search works just as the Unity Dash did, looking for apps, files, and installable apps as you type.
If there are few apps immediately available in the pop-up, it's because the default is to show
recently used and pinned apps. Clearly the recently used apps will populate. But it's useful to pin
the apps you use occasionally to augment your favourite apps you have already pinned to the
dock.

You can pin apps by using the 'Customise Menu' setting and within that submenu go to the 'Pinned
Apps' where you can add and rearrange the Apps you want to appear.

Finally, to make ArcMenu 'fit in', you can go back to the main ArcMenu settings and use the Menu
Themes to choose an appearance that
works best with your Gnome Panel and
Dash to Dock colours.

I chose a partially transparent Ubuntu

Aubergine which matches the look of the
original Unity Dash.

And, if you really want the ArcMenu icon to

look more Ubuntu, you can replace the icon
from the Button Appearance setting – you
can get the Ubuntu icon from the Browse
Icons button under the Distro Icons tab.

Getting a Unity-like desktop

Ok, so now the main workflow is like Unity –

a Dock with the most used apps and
indicators for current apps, and an
integrated Dash in which you can quickly
select apps or search for apps, files and
more. That's sufficient unless you're more of a Unity purist.

You can move the calendar and icons to the right hand side of the Gnome Panel, remove the
Activities Button (now redundant because of the Dock and ArcMenu) and add the current window
title and buttons for maximised windows to the Panel by adding the Unite Gnome Shell extension
(https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1287/unite/). This has a range of settings, accessible
from the Extensions App, where you can tailor things just as you want, though the defaults are all
pretty safe to start off with.

What about the Workspaces?

Of course, removing the Activities icon also removes access to the Gnome Activities overview. But
you always have access to these via the 'super' key (usually the Windows key on your keyboard).
Since Unity was intended to be as keyboard centric as possible, using the keybindings is helpful
now we've set the Gnome Desktop to be more like Unity. If you still want to be mouse-centric, the
ArcMenu Unity Dash has a button on it to access the Gnome Activities overview.

Other tweaks

If you are trying to match the images I've added, you will need to use a few more extensions to
help. I use the Dynamic Panel Transparency extension
(https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1011/dynamic-panel-transparency/) to change the top
Panel transparency to 80/20% depending in whether windows are maximised or not, to use the
Ubuntu Aubergine colour and to add a shadow to the white panel text so that it shows up on light
backgrounds. I've set the Dock to Dash colours and transparency to match.

Conclusion

Although you could still just about install and use the Unity Desktop in a recent Ubuntu
distribution, it's buggy now. Waiting for UnityX may be a possibility, and it's exciting to see what
that project will produce. But you can have a very Unity-like workflow right now with only a few
Gnome Extensions. Why not try it out? If you really don’t like it, to get back to ‘normal’ after you
have tried it you only need to disable the extensions – that’s the beauty of Gnome Shell
Extensions.