this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2025
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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.

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[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 32 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The idea is cool (not for me personally, but I see the merit).

But this project has flip-flopped its name, its flip-flopped its distro, its flip-flopped its Desktop Environment. Development has stopped and started multiple times.

I don't think this distro or this project is something that can be relied upon.

Surely it'd make more sense to develop this as a theme that can be installed by Plasma users, rather than as an entire distro?

[–] rozodru@pie.andmc.ca 9 points 6 days ago (2 children)

hopefully no one shows the developer NixOS...

[–] baduhai@sopuli.xyz 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I often look at these small purpose built niche distros and think to myself "this could just be a flake".

[–] rozodru@pie.andmc.ca 10 points 6 days ago

you're not wrong. A lot of them could simply be flakes or just cloned dotfiles. Just look at Omarchy, that's basically Arch with in installer and dotfiles.

If I'm looking to use a distro I want something that improves whatever it's based on, like CachyOS for example that has it's own repos and kernel. Distros that essentially just tweak GNOME or KDE I'm going to pass on. Like this PearOS. you can just download virtually any distro and install Plasma and make it look the same.

[–] beeng@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 6 days ago

I'd try this it as a specialisation for a day.

I rather hyprland over macos but could be fun to try or for my parents / siblings to test drive / use my computer for a day if needed. God knows how they'd survive currently.

[–] reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 6 days ago (4 children)

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?

[–] walden@wetshav.ing 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] walden@wetshav.ing 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That's a fair idea, I didn't realize it was an option to share customized KDE setups but that definitely makes sense.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 4 points 6 days ago

A lot of distros are just a stock distro with a customized DE on top.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 1 points 6 days ago

It's just a meme distro.

[–] ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

the more people use it the more reliable it will become

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

glances at Windows

You sure about that buddy?

[–] ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

windows ain’t open source so that doesn’t apply

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Being open source and having a lot of users does not guarantee you have more devs contributing to the project or that those devs are working towards efficiency.

Microsoft has way more devs working on it as a full time job than any open source project does.

[–] ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

a: yes it does.
b: garbage in, garbage out

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

B is the reason that A is wrong.

In fact, a project is more likely to get less efficient with a larger user base because that typically means more features which increases complexity.

[–] ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 5 days ago

well according to C, the bigger a project gets the more an overly confident person on the internet will make broad, sweeping statements about things they don’t understand.

or in short: cool story, bro

[–] Mouarfff@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 4 points 6 days ago

Arreviderci

[–] nil@piefed.ca 5 points 6 days ago

If you can use Mac, you can use Gnome.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 days ago

I haven't read about this before.

It's interesting that (judging from the screenshot), they even tried to recreate the Apple menu, which on macOS isn't a start menu after all; but I do wonder what is the way to start apps in this interface? Did they try to clone macOS in that regard to and do that through the "Finder" (probably Dolphin)?