Today I'm going to tell you about a Linux distribution called Pear Linux (previous names include Pear OS and Commice OS). I came across the distribution after I failed miserably at properly configuring multiple Hackintosh distributions, which I had wanted to do for a long time. I knew a distribution that used to look like Mac OS, but in recent versions it had evolved into its own lightweight GUI. I use it frequently on an older computer in the house, but it would never do as my day-to-day OS.
Well, a quick Google search turned up Pear OS. Upon researching the free Ubuntu-based distro, I discovered that I had tried its predecessor, Commice OS, two versions ago. I had just the opposite of fond memories of Commice, but I also remember that I only tried it in a virtual machine, and decided to give it some more handicap points when I factored in that it was running on a 2008 AMD laptop. Feeling like I had nothing to lose, and heavily persuaded by the distribution's advertising as usual, I decided to give it a try.
As detailed in the video to the left, downloading, burning and installing Pear Linux was a breeze. The installer was clearly based off of the Ubuntu installer, which is completely fine with me. It works, it's easy, and it's fast enough. I completed the usual routine of connecting to the internet, setting up my partition table, filling in my user info, and watching a nice slideshow of the main features of Pear.
When I rebooted my system into the newly installed OS, I was greeted again by a familiar Ubuntu feature: the LightDM login manager. After logging in, though, I began to see the level of uniqueness that Pear OS holds... at least, compared to its Linux friends. The interface was astonishingly similar to that of Mac OS, but that's kind of a given.
When I logged in for the first time, I noticed several things. One was that the desktop background was cut off of my screen. As I note in the video, I am the only person in the world who's not using a widescreen monitor, but I still expect a desktop background that looks good, especially when it includes words and logos.
The second thing that I noticed was an icon on the top of the desktop saying, "LAUNCH ME FIRST". I decided to trust the little guy and launched him, entered my root password, and waited for the system to install some distro-specific packages and clean up after the installation. I still wonder why this couldn't have been included in the installer in any way at all, but after rebooting the computer once more I paid no price for running the program, except for having a blank space on my desktop where the icons had neglected to shift up to.
Now that the installation tasks had been completed, I started having some fun with the OS itself. I really do admire the Mac OS GUI, although I can't say that I approve of all of Apple's mobile OS functions they've been incorporating. That said, I can't say that Pear was a perfect replica, but it sure was pretty enough to keep me satisfied. Rather than some other Mac- and Windows-like distributions that are designed to ease new users into Linux gently, Pear OS seemed to be trying to keep the illusion up the entire time.
While there were still some bugs, there were not nearly as many as Commice OS 4 had had the last time I used it. In Commice, I had not been able to do anything without a bug stepping in the way and stopping me (and believe me, bugs are actually a whole lot worse than a slow or frozen computer.) Some things that worked in Pear 6 that hadn't in Commice 4 include the Launchpad, Virtual Desktops, the GNOME 3 activities menu, and the Pear App Store, although I did encounter some issues with the latter two.
The Pear App Store is based off of the Deepin Linux App Store, rather than the popular Ubuntu Software Center. I can't say that I prefer Pear's store to the one that I'm used to in Ubuntu, but I can say that it's grown. It has a featured tab with many items I usually have to dig around for, as well as a full classic apper-style repository that I also greatly appreciated. The one complaint I do have is updates; rather, bundles of them. Updates seem to come in waves, and I always look forward to receiving the latest and greatest features and bug fixes. However, in Pear Linux, when I cued multiple updates to install one after another, whatever update was currently working freezes at the end of its turn, and I'm forced to restart the OS to clear the list and start again. Now, don't get me wrong: I was able to successfully install every update that was available. I just had to sit there and wait for one update to finish, then the next one, clicking each one individually as the one before it finished. I cannot say that it was fun.
Another thing that was slightly buggy was "Mission Control", or a customized version of the GNOME 3 Activities menu. First, let's set this straight: in other distros, I LOVE the Activities menu. In Pear, however, it's evident that they may have modified it a little too much. Specifically, if I opened the menu while no windows were open, the menu wouldn't close; I'd have to open a window and click on it just to exit the menu. The applications were also missing, because they were in Launchpad. Oh and that also leaves virtual desktops...
I cannot LIVE without virtual desktops. I just have too much going on in my computer for it to all be displayed at once. I have to say that the vanilla GNOME 3 menu provided the best desktop experience I've ever had, followed by Ubuntu's Unity, and then KDE... but Pear OS didn't quite fit the bill. Why? Because for over a week, I didn't even know that there were virtual desktops included. They weren't in Mission Control (which, by the way, is where they are in Mac OS), and there weren't any icons for them... the Pear OS website didn't even show me how to access them. I ended up finding them on accident: I had already known that the Activities menu was accessed by moving the mouse to a hot-spot in the upper left of the window, but I did NOT know that virtual desktops were in the LOWER left. Looking back at it, it seems like they may have been emulating the iOS Multitasking feature rather than virtual desktops in Mac OS, and after I grew used to it I had no problems using it fluently, but it really was truly mind-blowing just how hidden the feature had been.
Well, that's just about everything I have to say about Pear Linux 6 as of now. While it has its bugs, the UI is extremely simple and elegant to use. I would recommend this to a first-time Linux user because of its simplicity, but I would not recommend it to a power user due to its bugs.
Pear Linux's website is pearlinux.fr (oh, did I forget to mention that it's based in France?) Anyways, feel free to download the ISO and take it for a spin.