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key takeaways

• pearOS is now an Arch-based distribution.
• This Linux distro looks and feels like MacOS.
• You can install and use this OS for free.

Pear OS has had a bit of history. It started out as a Debian-based Linux distribution called Pear OS. Then, out of nowhere, it was renamed Comice OS. The rename gremlins struck again, and it was back to Pear OS.

Pear OS was then sold to a company hoping to keep the distribution alive, but that experiment did not last long, and a single developer, Alexandru Bălan, brought it back, only this time as pearOS.

Bălan switched from the Debian base to an Arch base, gave it a new installer, the 6.17 kernel, and KDE Plasma 6.5.3. Of course, Bălan tweaked the KDE Plasma theme until it looked as MacOS as a Linux desktop can.

I installed pearOS to see how the project was faring, and I came away impressed.

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Being based on Arch, pearOS is now a rolling release distribution, which means you install it once and you are done, other than the regular updates. For those who grow tired of having to install a new OS every year, or every other year, rolling release distributions are a great option.

When you install pearOS and log in for the first time, you are greeted by a desktop that very closely resembles a pre-Tahoe MacOS desktop. The developer has indicated that he is planning on creating a "Liquid Gel Design" that will be "A revolutionary design language that brings fluid, organic interfaces with advanced glassmorphism effects and seamless animations."

That's not all. Bălan also indicates, on the official pearOS site, that he is planning on developing a brand new desktop environment, Soda DE, that will refine user interaction with "innovative workflows and intuitive design patterns."

OK, enough with the market speak. Let's dig in.

The look

Bălan has done a great job developing a MacOS-like desktop that reminds me a bit of the old Deepin Desktop, only with the stability and trustworthiness of KDE Plasma. He has even brought to the fore a nomenclature that will make MacOS users smile, such as PearFinder, and added a panel extension that resembles the MacOS Launchpad.

You will even find a shortcut to KRunner, the KDE Plasma search tool, on the top bar, which functions similarly to Spotlight.

Of course, the theme is spot on for older iterations of MacOS. It is as clean and elegant as MacOS has ever been.

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There is even a tool called FlexHub that resembles the MacOS Notification Sidebar.

If I had to compare pearOS to another Linux distribution, I would say the look and feel resembles that of elementaryOS, and that is a good thing.

The feel

At least for now, pearOS uses KDE Plasma, which is a rock-solid desktop environment. Click the Launchpad clone, and it immediately pops up to reveal the preinstalled apps, of which there are not many. In fact, the list of installed apps is pretty bare bones. There are a whopping 16 total user-facing apps to choose from.

Fortunately, you get KDE Discover with Flatpak integration, so you can install all the apps you need. pearOS is a smooth experience. 

The only issue I had was getting the timezone set properly. Even after running timedatectl and setting the proper timezone, after a reboot, the clock was still set to the date and time that I installed the OS. To remedy that, I had to set the time and date manually from the terminal window with:

sudo timedatectl set-time '2025-12-22 08:33:00'

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All was well.

The performance

As per usual, I installed Ollama to see how pearOS would handle local AI. Even with pearOS running with 5GB of RAM and only two CPU cores, it was still able to handle my test query, "What is Linux?"

Applications installed and opened quickly, everything was fairly smooth, and the desktop ran without issue. I would not say that pearOS performs as well as a typical lightweight Linux distribution, but it is certainly on par with any Arch installation I have ever used.

My only complaint

I had to really dig to find something to complain about, and the issue I bring up is fairly minor. 

On the pearOS Dock, there is an icon that I presume is supposed to function like the MacOS Downloads Stack. Even after saving files and folders to the ~/Downloads directory, the Folder Arc displays zero files. I am not sure what is up with that, but I am assuming this is a bug that is relatively easy to fix. I did everything I could think of, with no luck.

That is a pretty minor nit to pick, and I am assuming that once the developer finally releases Soda DE, with no estimate on when that will come to fruition, the feature will probably work, assuming the developer plans on sticking with the MacOS metaphor.

All in all, I found pearOS a real treat to work with. It looks great, runs smoothly, and, even though it is based on Arch, could be a distribution that just about anyone could use.

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Kudos to Alexandru Bălan for bringing pearOS back to life. I hope his intention is to keep running with it so Linux users have yet another beautiful desktop OS to choose from.

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