Give Xfce a Mac or Unity-style makeover

# Overview Xfce's Panel Profiles can rearrange your desktop into Mac (Cupertino), Unity, MATE/GNOME-2, or Windows-like layouts. The profiles do most of the heavy lifting, but some layouts need a little manual tweaking to match the expected behavior: aligning the global menu, moving status icons to the right, and replacing the default app switcher with a dock that supports pinned apps.

# Fixing the Unity panel Profiles may place the status icons immediately after the AppMenu. To move them to the right edge:

• Right-click the target panel and open Panel -> Panel Preferences.
• Go to the Items tab to see the list of plugins and their order.
• Click +Add and choose "Separator." Use the Up arrow to place the separator immediately after "AppMenu Plugin (external)."
• With the Separator selected, click the wrench/settings button. Set Style to Transparent and check Expand.
• Untick the AppMenu plugin's "Expand" box so the AppMenu aligns left.

That transparent, expanded separator pushes the status icons, clock, and session controls to the right side of the top panel.

# Adjusting the Cupertino (Mac-style) layout AppMenu with odd alignment. The simple fix:

• Open the top panel's Items tab.
• Find the AppMenu plugin and click the settings (wrench) button.
• Uncheck "Expand."

To get a cleaner, more Mac-like launcher button, hide the Whisker menu label:

• Right-click the menu button, pick Properties.

# Build a better dock Xfce's default Window Buttons plugin lists running windows but does not support pinned launchers. That often forces you to keep separate launchers and leads to duplicated icons. The Docklike Taskbar plugin provides the pinned-launchers-plus-running-indicator behavior used in macOS-style docks.

• Install the plugin (example command shown in the profile): sudo apt install -y xfce4-docklike-plugin
• Right-click the dock-style panel and open Panel -> Panel Preferences -> Items.
• Remove the Window Buttons plugin and add "Docklike Taskbar."
• Move Docklike Taskbar into the correct position with the Up/Down arrows.

Docklike Taskbar behavior and controls

• Pinned icons: launch an app, right-click its icon and enable "Pinned to dock." Pinned icons remain even when the app is closed.

• Previews: the plugin can optionally show preview thumbnails for windows.
• Reorder icons by holding Ctrl and left-click-dragging an icon.

# Quick checklist to reproduce the Mac/Unity look

• Install any required plugins (Docklike Taskbar, AppMenu external plugin, etc.).
• Use Panel Profiles to lay down the rough layout for Cupertino or Unity.
• Open Panel Preferences -> Items to add a transparent, expanded Separator after the AppMenu in the Unity profile.
• Uncheck Expand on the AppMenu in both Unity and Cupertino where needed.
• Hide Whisker menu titles if you want icon-only launcher buttons.
• Replace Window Buttons with Docklike Taskbar and pin preferred apps.