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Review: pearOS 2026.03
Quoting: DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD. —
pearOS is an Arch-based desktop Linux distribution which features a macOS-like theme and icons on top of the KDE Plasma desktop. The latest version of pearOS is called "NiceCOre" (it also carries the version number 2026.03) and it features a new installer based on Electron. The distribution runs on x86_64 processors only.
I downloaded the 3.6GB ISO file for pearOS and, booting from it, was given the option to run the distribution's live environment with FOSS drivers enabled or proprietary NVIDIA drivers. I don't have any NVIDIA hardware so this was an easy choice and I went with the default FOSS option.
The distribution's live session boots to a busy Plasma desktop which has been customized to loosely resemble the macOS desktop. There is a transparent menu bar at the top of the screen and a macOS-style dock is placed at the bottom. On the desktop we find a few widgets: one is a calendar and the other shows weather conditions in Bucharest. A single icon sits in the desktop's upper-right corner and can be used to launch the project's system installer.
Two windows open on the desktop automatically. One is titled "What's New" and displays news posts from the pearOS project. It keeps loading posts and adjusting the position of its text endlessly, making it virtually impossible to read any of the news items. This window seems to be constantly refreshing itself.
The second window presents us with multiple rows of action buttons. These buttons can be used to launch the system installer, open a menu to change the desktop resolution (only a few resolutions are supported), fetch package updates, and change the package manager's mirror list. There are also buttons for donating to the pearOS project and more buttons for visiting on-line resources, such as the distribution's GitHub page and Discord channels. There is a button for switching to a dark theme and another for opening (or re-opening) the What's New window.
Shortly after the desktop loaded a black blob appeared in the upper-centre section of the screen. This looks like it might be another widget that doesn't display anything, but it does not appear to have any controls or a method for dismissing it from the screen.