pearOS, a Linux distro that aims to look and behave like Apple’s macOS, is once again in active development with a new base, design, installer, and more.
French developer David Tavares initially created Pear OS back in 2011, based on Ubuntu and featuring the GNOME 3 desktop environment. The initial release, Pear OS 3, was based on Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system and shipped with Linux kernel 3.0.
While Ubuntu was using the Unity interface back then, Pear OS offered a Mac OS X look-alike with a dock. In 2012, David Tavares released a Debian Edition of Pear OS, and a month after that, the developer renamed Pear OS to Comice OS, and the next version was renamed once again to Pear OS Linux a few months later that year.
This doesn’t seem like the most reliable developer or distro.
Genuine question, why would I trust my machines to something as inconsistent as this?
Fair comment.
That said, it just installs in vanilla Arch at this point, which means it would work on EndeavourOS and probably CachyOS as well.
You can of course switch to another DE at any time.
So, you are really not exposing yourself to any risk. If it gets broken or abandoned, just stop using it.
Not that this means you should bother with it. But it is clearly a low risk option to try.
Of course. I’m not saying it’s a huge risk or anything, I’m mostly saying the history and track record of the developer and this distro aren’t exactly getting me excited to bother trying it.
the more people use it the more reliable it will become
If it interests you, try it. If it doesn’t interest you, don’t install it.
Not all software projects need to be developed by teams of people with published release cycles. There are lots of passion projects out there.
I know and I’ve got nothing against passion projects at all. It’s just that this one seems way too volatile after the bumpy road and multiple changes it’s had over the years with multiple stops and starts as well.
This is a case where I feel like I agree with the other comments here. Just make it a theme or some dotfiles for others to install instead.
That’s a fair idea, I didn’t realize it was an option to share customized KDE setups but that definitely makes sense.
It’s just a meme distro.