Quartz

Warning

Experimental software — do not install on real hardware. Use only in a disposable virtual machine, and take a snapshot before installing. Quartz changes desktop settings and may break your desktop or leave it unusable. Only proceed if you understand what the installer does and know how to recover your environment. Use entirely at your own risk. This project is provided as-is, without warranty. I accept no responsibility for damage, data loss, or any other consequences of installing or using it.

A classic Macintosh-inspired desktop theme for Ubuntu MATE 24.04. Quartz includes shared GTK 2, GTK 3, GTK 4 and Marco themes, icons, bitmap fonts, cursors, and Quartz Settings for adjusting the look of your desktop.

Install

Open a terminal in your Ubuntu MATE desktop session.

1. Install the dependencies:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install git build-essential pkg-config libgtk2.0-dev libgtk-3-dev libgtk-4-dev gtk2-engines-pixbuf fonts-terminus-otb fontconfig python3 curl jq file dconf-cli

2. Download Quartz and install it as your normal desktop user, without sudo:

   git clone https://github.com/avinayak/quartz.git
   cd quartz
   ./install.sh

3. Log out and back in, then open Quartz Settings from the applications menu to choose colors, fonts, corner radius, and window controls.

You can also choose Code → Download ZIP on this page, extract the archive, open a terminal in the extracted folder, and run ./install.sh after installing the dependencies above.

Installation changes your user's desktop theme, fonts, icons, cursors, and shared GTK settings. It builds Quartz Settings locally and installs it under ~/.local. Run it inside your logged-in MATE session; other desktops and macOS are not supported. Internet access is required for the Extras wallpaper download.

The full Quartz Extras installer runs automatically. Wallpapers become available in Control Center → Appearance → Background; your selected background stays unchanged. Firefox theming is a separate, reversible opt-in action under Quartz Settings → Extras → Add quartz theme to firefox.

Update

From the folder you cloned:

git pull --ff-only
./install.sh

Log out and back in if the installer requests it. ZIP users can download and extract a fresh copy and run its installer.

Compatibility

Quartz styles shared desktop and toolkit components. Applications with custom interfaces may retain some of their own appearance. See the theme notes and Quartz Settings guide for details.

Credits

Quartz builds on the work of these projects, artists, and maintainers:

• NineIcons / Platinum9 by grassmunk and contributors — the original NineIcons icon set, available in the repository's NineIcons folder.
• Nine Icons 48X by drgordbord — the enhanced icon pack bundled with Quartz. Its upstream credits include NineIcons, Platinum9, and Chicago95 by grassmunk and contributors. See the icon source notes for the exact release and packaging changes.
• Apple and the original Macintosh designers — the classic System 7 bitmap fonts and cursor artwork. The font source notes, Geneva notes, and cursor source notes document their provenance.
• Community bitmap font authors and maintainers — Spleen, Tamzen, Cozette, Scientifica, Creep, Cherry, Kirsch, Proggy, Gohufont, ProFont, and X11 Fixed. See the community font credits for upstream links and original license notices.
• Unsplash photographers — the optional wallpapers in the System7 collection. The wallpaper installer preserves photographer names in the desktop catalog.

Bundled third-party assets retain their original terms and attribution; see fonts/*SOURCE.md, fonts/community/licenses/, icon credits, and cursor credits. Original Apple bitmap artwork and fonts are not covered by a new license grant.