As previously mentioned, I’ve been wanting to try Arch Linux for a while, but have been dealing with setting up X Server plus a halfway decent window manager for a long while.
I’ve also been using Ubuntu on my MacBook Pro, as it’s the only Linux distro I’ve found that runs on OSX’s fancy bastardisation of EFI…. until now.
I recently discovered Manjaro, an Arch-based (check the first box) distro that comes pre-built with xfce (check the second box) and runs natively on a OSX’s UEFI (check the third box).
You can download the latest version here.
In order to run it on a Mac system-
* Burn it to a DVD.
* hold ‘option’ as you boot the Mac with the disc in it.
* choose the ‘UEFI’ disc that appears.
* and run through the installer.
I chose to blow away the entire system, and it came up a treat. There’s still the ugly GRUB menu that appears, but that’s pretty easy to change.
It feels like Arch, but performs beautifully without the hassle of trying to make X work.