Pear OS 3.0 - A Well Polished Mac-Like Ubuntu Based Distro - ScreenShots

Submitted by ingram on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 2:23pm

Pear OS 3.0 has a surprisingly genuine Mac feel to it. Being based off Ubuntu, Gnome 3.2, and Linux kernel 3.0.0.14, it feels very modern and elegant. If you have used Ubuntu, then you will be familiar with Pear OS. The Pear OS Appstore and Launchpad correspond to Ubuntu's Software Center and the Dashboard. At first glance, Pear OS seems like a beautiful desktop experience. Don't get me wrong, it is, but it doesn't take to long to find several problems. Here are the top 4 problems I found:

Language - Even though the default language is set to English, much of the text and titles are still in French, and I couldn't find a way to fix this.
Launchpad - The Launchpad is the tool to open/search applications, similar to the Dasboard in Ubuntu's Unity. The only problem is, it's not very clear that the Launchpad does this, and the Launchpad is the only way to easily open applications. The Super key wouldn't open the Launchpad, as it would open the Dashboard in Unity. I admit, I didn't read the documentation before trying Pear OS. I suppose that's why I didn't realize the small rocket icon in the dock was Launchpad, which is the only way to find applications.
Opera - I don't have a problem with Opera, but if you have an OS with one of it's main features being Global menu's for the top menu bar, then why would you not make sure the default web browser works with it?
Pear Company Parody - This isn't really a problem, just thought I'd add it in. It looks like Pear OS stole the idea from popular Nickelodeon show iCarly. In the show, most of the electronics are made by the Pear Company. The logos for Pear Company and Pear OS are almost identical. The Pear Company makes products such as the PearBook (MacBook), PearPod (iPod), PearPad (iPad), PearTunes (iTunes), and Pear TV (Apple TV). Like I said, this isn't really a problem, but I might of liked Pear OS better if it was a unique idea.

Pear Company