Cutefish is a new desktop environment for GNU / Linux distributions that includes Apple-inspired design elements including a dock, icons, and color theme. While the developers seem to be planning to release an operating system called CutefishOS based on Arch Linux soon, the easiest way to run the software at the moment is to use the new Manjaro Cutefish edition.
This community version of Manjaro Linux comes with the Cutefish app dock, file manager, calculator, status bar, full screen app launcher, and other packages preinstalled. And it’s a pretty nice take on the desktop environment… although it’s a bit familiar too.
My first thought was not only that Cutefish looks like macOS, but also that it looks like JingOS, a touchscreen-friendly Linux distro designed for tablets like the upcoming JingPad A1. So I was not surprised to find that there was a link to the JingOS website in the “Friends” section at the bottom of the CutefishOS website. In fact, JingOS seems to be the team’s only friend.
Other people have noticed something else about JingOS – many of the elements appear to be ports of software developed for CyberOS, another Arch-based operating system which, in turn, is designed to resemble the environment of Deepin office.
The Settings app, in particular, looks virtually identical across all three operating systems.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it’s an attractive and easy-to-navigate settings utility that makes it easy to adjust display, network, and appearance settings, among others.
In the Appearance section, for example, there is support for light and dark modes and you can customize by changing the font or accent colors.
And you can quickly switch between light and dark modes from the drop-down menu that appears when you click the time, power, or volume icons in the status bar at the top of the screen. You can also toggle between WiFi and Bluetooth, adjust the audio volume, or turn off, disconnect or put your computer to sleep from this menu.
Overall, Cutefish seems to be a fairly straightforward but attractive skin for Manjaro or other Linux based operating systems. The Manjaro edition was first released just a few weeks ago, and the CutefishOS project doesn’t appear to be much older than that, so it should be interesting to see where the software goes from here … and if it diverges more from Deepin and CyberOS in the future.