Garuda Linux on a 2013 15" MBP

Refresh an old Macbook Pro into a beautiful Linux Workstation

Recently, the Linux community has been raving about a new Arch-based distro called Garuda Linux. Not only does it remove the complexities of vanilla Arch installation by making installation graphical and user-friendly like Manjaro, but it also delivers a wide variety of beautifully pre-configured desktop environments with a slew of much-welcomed bells and whistles. It’s so beautiful that I personally feel it surpasses Manjaro especially when it comes to visual aesthetics and attention to detail. Furthermore, beyond visual aesthetics, Garuda comes with a refreshing default of BTRFS which I think is a great choice.

Hence, it’s not a surprise that Garuda has in such a short amount of time gain its popularity as there’s something to be said about using a distro that is extremely customizable yet simple to install with everything that just pretty much works out-of-the-box; something that has not really been achieved before which is apparently the reason for a subset of people that continue to stay on Macs.

For those of you who are immediately curious about what I mean by beautiful, you can take a look at this very hastily recorded screencast right after installing it on Virtualbox the first time: