Pearl Linux

Pearl Linux is an open source, fast, lightweight, full-featured and totally free GNU/Linux operating system that boasts a premium design in the style of the highly acclaimed, beautiful and attractive Mac OS X operating system.

As its name suggests, the distribution aims to be an independent continuation of the well known Pear OS Linux operating system that has been discontinued in early 2014. It is derived from the Ubuntu Linux distro (version 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) at the moment of writing this review).

Distributed as a bootable, 32-bit Live DVD

The Pearl Linux OS is distributed as a single, hybrid and bootable Live DVD ISO image that has approximately 1.5 GB in size and includes software packages optimized only for 32-bit (x86) computers. This means that while it can be used on 64-bit (x86_64) machines, you’ll only be able to install 32-bit apps.

The boot options are standard for an Ubuntu derivative

From the Live DVD boot menu, which includes standard options, the user will be able to start the live system with normal configuration (default option), start the live system in safe graphics mode in case the first entry doesn’t recognizes the computer’s video card, start the installation directly, run a memory test, as well as to boot an existing OS from the local drive.

Mac OS X-like desktop environment powered by Xfce

As mentioned, the operating system uses the lightweight Xfce desktop environment for its default graphical session, which has been highly customized to look and act like the Mac OS X operating system. It comprises of a dock (application launcher) located on the bottom edge of the screen and a menubar (panel) located on the upper side of the screen. However, it uses a Main Menu in the style of the Windows Vista OS.

Includes a wide variety of open source apps

The best part of the Pearl Linux distribution, is without no doubt the huge collection of open source applications. Among some of the most popular ones, we can mention the LibreOffice office suite, Chromium web browser, FileZilla file transfer client, SeaMonkey all-in-one Internet suite, Pidgin multi-protocol instant messenger, Transmission BitTorrent client, HandBrake multimedia converter, Cheese webcam viewer, VLC Media Player and Clementine audio player.

In addition, the Audacity audio converter, HPLIP (HP Linux Imaging and Printing), AbiWord word processor, Brasero and Xfburn CD/DVD burning software, guvview webcam viewer, Banshee media player, GIMP image editor, Ristretto image viewer, Simple Scan image scanner, Inkscape vector graphics editor, Bulk Rename batch file renaming utility, Gedit and Mousepad text editors, Thunar file manager and BibleTime Bible study software are also included.