Mac4Lin ver.0.2 - Mac OS X Leopard Transformation pack

Hey guys, new here. I wanna share my work wid you. The project I'm working on: Mac4Lin - Mac transformation pack for Linux!

I am happy to announce the version 0.2 release of the Mac4Lin Project. Version 0.1 alpha has received an overwhelming response. People have used and liked it and the downloads (as on this day) have touched about 6GB!!! Lots of comments/suggestions/bugs were received and I have tried to iron out all the bugs known till this day. This update also brings a whole lot of new things. See the changelog for changes.

Special thanks to Victor of vsdigital for provding the Firefox Safari Skin and thanks to everyone who tested the version 0.1 alpha. Because of all this I'm giving version 0.2 stable to this release. Keep visiting the project website for more updates.

Apply it, flaunt it, enjoy it!

Anirudh (a.k.a ANi, infra_red_dude)

For any suggestions/comments/complaints/feedback/bug tracking please drop by my blog or send a mail:

My Blog: http://phoenix-ani.blogspot.com/
My E-Mail id: infra_red_dude<A.T>users<D.O.T>sourceforge<D.O.T>net
Project Website: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mac4lin
Screenshots: http://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?group_id=204373

Folks, got my GRE on 8th October. I gotta prep for it and also go thru all the universities' websites. Will be a bit busy. So, I may not be regular at the forums for the next one month. You may post ur feedback either on my blog/project website/this thread or mail it to me. I'll look into it as soon as possible

changelog:
Mac4Lin version 0.2, 17/09/2007

Icon updates
New firefox skin by Victor of vsdigital
Mac OS System Sounds
New Grub Screens
More Leopardish Emerald theme
Simdock source tarball included
Leopard Dock AWN theme updated
OS X Fonts and font enhancing guide
More Leopardish GTK Metacity theme
One GTK Splash screen added
Updated Pidgin OSX Theme
Four new wallpapers added
Documentation (README) added for every component
GTK Mac Menu is not included in this pack as some users have reported some issues. If anybody wants to install this, it can be Downloaded from the ver.0.1alpha pack. The GTK Mac Menu package remains unchanged.

 

Well, i've visited the mac4lin project site and i have to say it look really nice!
Did you also see the Mac-like Linux distribution called DreamLinux? It's GUI (Xfce not Gnome) looks like a mac too, but i think Mac4Lin will go a step further. The transformation pack will change your desktop within a mac. I hope that all this beauty will not cause a slow pc.

Success with the nice project!

 

Thanks for the compliment, Hans. I really appreciate it

Yes, I've used DreamLinux. But things are pretty rigid in there including the XFCE DE itself.

Rest assured, it'll not If your system can run beryl/compiz you can take full advantage of this pack. If is otherwise then the only things you'll be missing is the emerald theme and the avant window manager. To make up for it the GTK Metacity will take over. It is however deprived of inactive window transparencies. other than that you get everthing! To fill in for avant window manager, I've included Simdock which will run even on the most basic system. So you kinda miss nothing even if you haf an 8 year old PC!!!

Its just like installing Icon theme, Cursors, Window Manager theme. But all available in a centralized place pertaining to the same theme: Mac emulation. So it won't slow down your system. I've tested this on a P4 1.5Ghz, 256MB DDR RAM, intel 845 chipset with onboard gfx and 32mb shared ram and it runs fine wid full beryl/CF effects. Except that it get a bit sluggish when there are more than 8 windows open. But then its coz of those extra beryl/compiz effects. So rest assured about your system being snappy

Thank You once again, Hans.

 

I partially installed this on my Ubuntu desktop and it is nice. I did mix and match somewhat between yours and other OSX-style widget themes/window decorations, and customised things, until i got a combination I liked best. AWN is nice, but a bit flakey still, and it should collect all windows for an app under a single icon, not open a new one for each application's window.

Curiously, I found that after all the messing about with themes and decorations the biggest change to make it 'feel right' was just sorting out the fonts. Installing Lucida Grande and setting the font prefs to use it, and the right kind of anti-aliasing made all the difference, and when I inevitably roll back to a more Linuxy theme (because, ultimately, the more OSX-like it *looks* the more annoying it is when it doesn't quite *deliver* on Mac-using expectations - which isn't really fair on Linux) the font setup is the bit that will be kept.

But just at the moment it looks very posh. I can't supply a screenshot right now to prove it as I'm away from that computer for a day or so (and on a real mac) (Although if I feel sufficiently energetic maybe I'll apply the same stuff to the Ubuntu install on this macbook - I was just going to abandon that though, as I can't get the fscking trackpad working right.)

 

Yes Rachel. One of the things that people tend to do is download the Icon pack from the version 0.1alpha release and replace the folder Icons to that of Tiger. Other than that people hafnt reported much of mix and match.

Regarding the font smoothing and tinkering it is required on any Linux system i suppose and this should be made as the default setup. The guide really improves the readability and the appearance.

Thanks for your comments, Rachel

 

Regarding grouping of icons on avant window manager, its been posted as a feature request to the developers. Lets see whether's its implemented or not. But in this case, I am wid you and would love to see this feature in the next release of AWN.

 

Back home...

So, I got back home. Here y'go, what mine looks like. (Link goes to my home box; can't upload an image of this resolution to this site; it scales it down.)

My desktop, last night.

Image just shows the desktop with some config windows open to illustrate some of the custom deviations from the mac4lin defaults.

 

Hi Anirudh,

that's a nice work!
Would be interested in writing a tutorial about installing Mac4Lin on, let's say, Ubuntu or Fedora? If we publish it on HowtoForge, a lot more people will know about Mac4Lin.

 

@rachel
Thats a nice desktop So, I see that except the Emerald and GTK theme others are from Mac4Lin project.

@falko
Sure, I'd love to do that. But I need some time falko. Mebbe another 15 dayz so that I can come up wid a step by step tutorial with pics. Bit busy these dayz

 

That's no problem. If I can help you somehow, please tell me.

 

hey sure falko, if you can capture the screenshots while installing each component of the pack then the work wud be over. coz i already haf the readme/installation instruction is the readme files. the text can be taken from there. screenshots from here and the article is done!

 

I had some problems with some of the instructions, for example with the dock (and some other folders that I don't remember anymore - I tried this on Thursday...). That's why I was hoping you could do it - you're the developer, so it must work for you.

 

regarding the dock (AWN) the installation procedure is only for ubuntu. for others i'm not aware of an RPM package readymade. so sources are the only way to go in for.

yeah sure, i'll do that part. will post an article soon

regarding ur problems, jus post it here. we'll sort it out

 

Folks, the Mac4Lin has clocked half a century downloads! Yeah the total downloads haf crossed the 50GB mark till date! I thank everyone for supporting me

I'm working on version 0.3 of Mac4Lin. Expect a release in under 10 dayz. Keep checking this thread/project website.

 

Hey folks this is the current development of Mac4Lin:







Some small but discernable changes in the screenshots. Spot them if you can. More changes under the hood. Just releasing a preview here Sorry for the delay. Was a bit busy. Will also start working on a Howto Guide on Mac4Lin.

 

Falko, I haf the guide almost ready. They are in Open document format, MS Word and PDF. Which ones should I mail you?

 

Do you have it in HTML format?

 

I guess I can save it as html. Not a problem. I'll hafta upload the pics somewhere. Lotsa pics. Thats the problem.

 

Can you send me the tutorial (HTML + pictures) as a zip file (to ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com)? I'll then upload the pictures to the server.

 

Ok falko I'll soon do it.