In day-to-day life, using a single Desktop environment can be boring and one may be required to switch to another one just to change the look and feel. Ubuntu comes with the default Gnome desktop environment which is cool and easy to use.
However, this desktop environment may not be as appealing as you may want. There are many Linux Desktop environments one can switch to such as KDE Plasma, MATE, LXQt, Cinnamon, XFCE, Deepin, Budgie e.t.c. Among the best Desktop Environments for Ubuntu is the Pantheon Desktop Environment. This is the default desktop environment for Elementary OS developed by the same team that builds the Elementary OS. This desktop environment is written from scratch using the GTK3 toolkit and Vala. Pantheon offers an amazingly pretty user interface with a rich set of features, programs, and apps needed in day-to-day use.
The Pantheon Desktop Environment has the following features:
- Desktop – with a plank bottom center, a translucent top with applications on the left hand side.
- A beautiful dock which also shows red bubbles for notifications
- Wing Panel to be used for searching and launching apps
- It has the multitasking View
- Status Bar – Notifications.
- Multiple Desktops.
- Compact Music Player.
This guide aims to demonstrate how to install Pantheon Desktop Environment on Ubuntu 24.04|22.04. By the end of this guide, you should have installed and customized Pantheon Desktop on Ubuntu 24.04|22.04.
Let’s dive in!
Step 1 – Add Pantheon Desktop Environment Repository
The Pantheon Desktop Environment is not available in the default Ubuntu repository. However, this is not a reason why we shouldn’t be able to install it.
Run update command on your Ubuntu system and install required dependencies:
sudo apt update -y
sudo apt install -y software-properties-commonThe Pantheon Desktop Environment can be installed from the Elementary OS PPA repositories which can be added to our system as below.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementary-os/daily
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementary-os/os-patchesUpdate your package index on Ubuntu and upgrade system
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
[ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && sudo reboot -fStep 2 – Install Pantheon Desktop on Ubuntu 24.04|22.04
Now that we have successfully added the repositories, we are set to install the Pantheon Desktop Environment on Ubuntu 24.04|22.04.
Installing the Pantheon Desktop Environment on Ubuntu can be achieved using the command below.
sudo apt install -y elementary-icon-theme elementary-default-settings elementary-desktopPantheon will attempt to configure Lightdm as the default display manager:
Select the default display manager on your system. Once the installation is successful, reboot your system.
sudo reboot -iStep 3 – Switch to the Pantheon Desktop on Ubuntu 24.04|22.04
When the system boot, switch to the Pantheon Desktop Environment on Ubuntu by clicking on the settings icon if you already had a desktop environment. On the displayed list, select Pantheon and proceed to login.
If you were runing a serve with no GUI, the system will go straight to the pantheon login page.
Pantheon Desktop Environment will initialize as shown.
Launch the applications menu as below.
Step 4 – Customize Pantheon Desktop on Ubuntu 24.04|22.04
The Pantheon Desktop Environment can be customized to suit the user’s preferences. Navigate to Settings>>Desktop. From here, you can make the below configurations:
Customize the appearance of your Desktop, there are two themes, the light and dark themes.
The default theme is the light one but you can switch or schedule the dark theme on Pantheon.
You can as well customize your dock and panel on the Pantheon desktop environment.
The other customization to make is on the multitasking window. Here, you set what happens when the mouse is moved to the corners.
This helps in navigation between windows and setting required shortcuts in Pantheon Desktop Environment.
Conclusion.
I hope you successfully installed the Pantheon Desktop Environment on Ubuntu 22.04|20.04. Now you can enjoy the awesomeness of this Desktop environment.
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