How to customize the Ubuntu dock to look like macOS

What is GNOME?

GNOME is one of the most widely used Linux desktop environments and is the default desktop environment on Ubuntu. Other major Linux distributions like Debian, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Fedora, etc. also use GNOME as their default desktop.

The current version of GNOME is beautiful and elegant. It boasts a customizable dash and promises a distraction-free computing experience to let you get things done with ease. It also comes with advanced keyboard and mouse gesture features.

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, is the first Ubuntu version to fully support the latest version of GNOME 42, released in early 2022.

How to customize the Ubuntu dock to look like macOS

Step 1: Access dock settings

By default, the dock in Ubuntu is located on the left side of the screen. This has been Ubuntu's tradition since the days of the Unity desktop. Before Ubuntu 22.04, you had to rely on third-party software to customize the dock. All of that has changed thanks to the new GNOME.

Access the dock settings by pressing the Super key and then typing "settings" in the input that appears. In the Settings menu, click the Appearance tab. There you will find the Dock section to customize your dock.

Step 2: Customize the Ubuntu dock

After accessing the dock settings, you can change the dock's position to Bottom, which is left by default. If you look at the dock now, it will be positioned at the bottom of the screen, but stretched from edge to edge.

The next step is to customize the dock so that it floats in the center of your screen. To do that, just turn off Panel mode by clicking the toggle button.

For a more focused and distraction-free desktop, click the Auto-hide the Dock toggle button to enable and automatically hide the dock whenever you're not using it.

In addition, you can customize the dock to have smaller or larger icons depending on your liking.

You can also customize whether the recycle bin or mounted hard drives on the dock are always visible. To change these properties, simply click on the Configure dock behavior section and make the necessary updates.

The updated settings should now look something like this:

 After making all the changes, this is how your desktop will look:

The article looked at how to customize the new dock in Ubuntu 22.04. If you are using an older version of Ubuntu, simply upgrade to the latest Ubuntu LTS release to experience the power of the GNOME desktop environment.

Lesley Montoya

Update 02 June 2022