WhiteSur: macOS-like theme for GTK desktops

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Apple IP and “look-alike” concerns

  • Several commenters note the direct use of Apple’s logo and stock icons (Finder, Launchpad, Safari, etc.) and see clear trademark/copyright risk.
  • Others argue the practical risk is low (tiny user base, non-competing product), but acknowledge Apple has historically issued takedowns for unauthorized use of its assets.
  • Dock magnification patents are mentioned; some say those patents have now expired and that the theme’s author doesn’t seem overly concerned with IP anyway.

Technical limits and jank of GTK/GNOME theming

  • Many report long-standing “jank” at theme boundaries: some apps respect the theme, others ignore it or render incorrectly.
  • libadwaita and GNOME are described as explicitly hostile to deep theming; “fix” often means brittle hacks, and every major GNOME release risks breaking themes.
  • Issues include inconsistent padding, fonts, colors, and window controls, plus apps that ship their own styling.
  • Extensions and themes have short lifetimes because GNOME’s APIs aren’t stable; authors must constantly chase churn.
  • Using mixed toolkits (GTK/Qt) or old apps (e.g., GParted under KDE) often produces mismatched UI.

Appearance vs behavior: macOS vs Linux

  • Multiple users stress that mimicking macOS visuals doesn’t reproduce what they actually value:
    • Consistent keyboard shortcuts and menu semantics.
    • A global menu bar as the exhaustive surface for app functionality.
    • Bundle-based app/plugin/library model and disk images (sparsebundles, Time Machine style).
  • Some note GNOME lacks a robust global menubar and historically even hid minimize; extensions exist but feel hacky.
  • Result: themes can look like macOS, but interaction paradigms remain fundamentally different.

User preferences: defaults, other DEs, and “not caring”

  • Several prefer stock themes (Adwaita, Ubuntu Yaru, Mint, Breeze) because they “just work” and stay maintained.
  • Others enjoy long-lived niche themes (Chicago95, Orchis), or give up theming entirely in favor of tiling WMs (i3) where most of the screen is app content.
  • Opinions diverge on aesthetics: some find GNOME already “mac-like and polished”; others think Windows UI is “objectively atrocious,” while some say it’s just taste.

The broader theming debate

  • The GNOME “stopthemingmy.app” stance is referenced repeatedly: devs object mainly to distro-wide theming that breaks apps and generates false bug reports.
  • Some see this as reasonable; others argue it conflicts with the spirit of user control and customization on free desktops.