14 DAY TRIAL // Pear OS 8, a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu 13.10 that imitated the look and feel of Mac OS X to the letter, has been dead for more than six months, but it's still being downloaded and installed more than much newer systems that are still alive.
The curios case of Pear OS 8 is a very interesting one. This operating system had numerous problems during its existence, which spanned a few years. The devs had to change the name two or three times, they had to change the logo as well, and they finally decided on Pear OS. They had a few releases under the Pear OS name, but one day the distro disappeared.
The devs said that it was bought by a bigger company, but they also mentioned that it wasn't Apple or anything like that. The truth of the matter is that Pear OS never resurfaced, in any shape or form.
And this brings us to the fact that Pear OS 8 is still being downloaded and that happens a lot. For example, Pear OS 8 had more than 5,000 downloads only in August, but please bear in mind that it's based on Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander), which is no longer maintained.
People are still finding articles and images about it, and they really want to try it. Its resemblance with Mac OS X is uncanny and it was probably the only Linux operating system that had this particular goal, to imitate what Apple does. The high number of downloads on Softpedia is also helped by the fact that we are among that last websites to host the operating system, despite being officially discontinued.
Pear OS 8 was originally released in November 2013 and the download links and the announcement followed two months later, in January 2014. Its rise to fame happened shortly after its demise and the fact that Apple was rumored to have purchased (denied by the devs) the entire project greatly contributed to its success.
You can download Pear OS 8 right now from Softpedia and give it a try. It runs as a Live CD and you can even install it. Please keep in mind that the project has been terminated and the Ubuntu base is no longer supported, meaning that there are also no security updates.
We also have a comprehensive Pear OS 8 review in place, if you want to find out more about the system before you try it out.
