Pear OS 8

Pear OS (formerly Comice OS) also known as Pear Linux is an easy-to-use Linux distribution based on the Ubuntu operating system and heavily inspired by the design of the Mac OS X desktop. (This project has been discontinued, please read the last paragraph). Pear OS was always based on the latest stable version of the Ubuntu Linux operating system, but it also included various components from the unstable branch of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution.

Features at a glance

Pear Appstore is one of the most highlighted applications of Pear OS. However, the operating system contains many other in-house built applications, such as My Pear for customizing your entire desktop environment, Clean My Pear for keeping your system clean, and Pear Security for securing your entire OS. Furthermore, Pear PPA Manager can be used for managing third-party software repositories Pear Contacts for storing and organizing your contacts, Pear Cloud for keeping all of your important file in the cloud, and Pear Updater for keeping your entire system up-to-date.

Uses a highly customized GNOME desktop environment

The desktop is actually a highly customized version of GNOME, an open source desktop environment used in many popular Linux-based operating system. It’s composed of a panel and a dock.

Default applications include Nautilus file manager, Mozilla Firefox web browser, Mozilla Thunderbird email client, Shotwell image viewer, Evince document viewer, Empathy instant messenger, Gedit text editor, Musique audio player, and Synaptic Package Manager.

Distributed as 32-bit and 64-bit Live DVDs

It is distributed as two Live DVD ISO images, one for 64-bit architectures and another one for 32-bit architectures. The boot menu provides the usual entries that allow you to boot the live environment, install the entire system, boot the currently installed operating system, and start the Live CD in safe graphics mode.

It has been discontinued

Sadly, Pear OS has been discontinued in early 2014, as it was acquired by an unknown company. Softpedia will still provide download links for the latest version of Pear OS until a cease and desist letter is received from the new owner.