Interview with David Tavares ~ Pear OS Developer

pear os

Pear OS is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Ubuntu and it’s developed by one man, David Tavares. A few days ago I’ve contacted David and proposed him to do an interview. He accepted and below you can read what we’ve talked about.

1. Hello David, first tell us a few words about you.

I’m David Tavares, I’m 35 and I live in France. Computer enthusiast, I started to get interested in Linux with Red Hat 2. I continued with Mandrake and I stayed with Caldera. Caldera development has been stopped, I went on Suse (then openSUSE ) that I keep for several years. I started with Mac OS X in 2005 with my first iMac while keeping my PC with openSUSE. I became interested in Debian and then Ubuntu because I thought the new version openSUSE I liked least.

2. When did you start working on Pear OS and what made you start such a project?
Having tasted the Apple system, I ended up installing Ubuntu on my PC and I started doing custom looked like the Apple system, like Macbuntu and with various themes and icons. And I decided to create my system following the arrival of Unity.
I started my personal distribution with themes and icons with the look of Apple’s system. And came Pear Linux 1. The purpose of this distribution was initially reserved for my own use. Friends have invited me to share it on the internet for the advance and solve problems and bugs I had. And by little, I put my system to date and suggestions prompted systematically on my website. I was pleasantly surprised to see more and more users are interested in my distribution. A more advanced website has been created and a forum. Many volunteers help me in the bug fixes and creating new functionalities. The system in its version 7, and several applications have been created especially for Pear OS 7 at the request of users.

3. Are you the only person working on Pear OS or there is a team behind the project?

I am alone to develop Pear OS. It takes me a long time, but it pleases me very much. Through the website and forum, I met with several users and 2 above. We sympathized and they offered to help me on the forum. They are the forum moderators. A big thank you especially to Fr0zen for its support and its implications in Pear Os. They allow me to translate applications, get help in the development and also testing the development version in search of bugs.

4. . Pear OS looks a lot with Apple’s Mac OSX. Did you ever had any problems because of that?

Not at the moment … and I hope I do not have. I trust.

5. Pear OS has some cool specific applications. Tell us more about them and are you planning on developing others in the future?

To design Pear Os, I am based on what already exists in the open source and I thank all the developers. (I think of elementary, GNOME, Yorba … and many others). For the latest version (Pear OS 7), I wanted to have specific applications for Pear OS. I’ve created and designed utility for Pear OS as “CleanMyPear“, a utility to clean your system ; “MyPear 5” (coming soon) for customize your system ; “PPA Manager” to easily add your PPA repo, “Pear Updater ” software updater. “Pear About“, a software that gathers information from your system. And many others will come later …

6. The latest versions of Pear OS are available only for 64 bit systems. What made you take this decision and are you planning on releasing 32 bit editions in the future as well?

As one developer, older versions took me a long time to make 32 and 64 bit. Today many are PC-compatible 64 bit, and it allows me to develop a more reliable system because I have only one version to be developed. I do not know if the next version will have 32-bit editions. This will depend on the progress of the harvest of funds which will allow me to take a year without pay and get involved full-time in the development of the system.

7. Recently you’ve started a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo. Can you tell us more about this initiative, what are the goals?

Desiring to improve and innovate to Pear OS, I would quit my job for an year (this is possible in France) and invest myself fully in Pear OS. I need a budget of € 45,000. I personnaly will invest € 10,000 and € 35,000 remain to be found, to complete the project. That is why I am appealing to the site indiegogo.com. Depending on your involvement in the financing of Pear OS, you will receive thank you gifts.
The goal is to make “Pear OS” an efficient system, easy to use and why not be a direct competitor of Ubuntu or Linux Mint;) … why not?
And of course, it will be free and freely downloadable.