How do I change the desktop name on the Unity panel?

Question

How do I change Ubuntu Desktop to XYZ's Desktop.

Answer 1

You would likely need to build the unity or unity-2d source. Currently in unity-5.12 would be found in /plugins/unityshell/src/PanelMenuView.cpp, line 78

 _desktop_name(_("Ubuntu Desktop"))

In unity-2d, unity-2d 5.12, /panel/applets/appname/appnameapplet.cpp line 369

d->m_label->setText(u2dTr("Ubuntu Desktop"));

Answer 2

There's a much quicker way, by abusing the gettext translation system. Assuming you are using an English locale:

#Make a temporary text file using vim/gedit/cat/whatever
cat > /tmp/foo.po
msgid "Ubuntu Desktop"
msgstr "A Badger With A Gun"
^D

cd /usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES
sudo msgfmt -o unity.mo /tmp/foo.po

And either log out and back in or just do:

unity --replace

Answer 3

This is a bit unusual and may be reverted if you update Unity, but this should be possible.

1. Open GEdit (or any other text editor) and insert the following:

   msgid "Ubuntu Desktop"
   msgstr "Mac OS X"
   

2. Save the file wherever you'd like with the .po extension. I'll refer to it as ~/desktop.po.

3. Open up the terminal and execute the following commands:

   cd /usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES
   sudo msgfmt -o unity.mo ~/desktop.po
   

4. Log out and log back in and the text should have changed.

This is taking advantage of the translation system in Ubuntu to make it consider the English translation of "Ubuntu Desktop" to be "Mac OS X".