I’m looking into a new tablet and it seems like grabbing a surface is a more affordable option to an iPad or other high end tablet. I can grab a decent one on marketplace for under $200 us. Is it worth it?
I used to use two different surface pro 5s with linux surface kernel arch and KDE. The first one worked really well even with pen input and I really liked the form factor, after this device got stolen I bought another surface 5pro but this time I could not get pen input to work properly. You just run into weird bugs with these deices. Pen input worked with some hacking but then later it didnt work again. If you catch a device that works its really nice if not you loose some functionality
Well, if you want a cheaper option, look at the Chuwi tablets, which are new around 250-300 and have some decent Intel CPUs and pen input.
Depends what version of the Surface, but I have a Surface Pro 6 and it still performs well. I use the Surface Linux kernel.
Not a pro, but I’m using Endeavour os on a 1st gen Surface Go. it works fine but KDE has some touchscreen quirks I don’t like.
Check out linux-surface for details of what works on your specific model (and if you’ll need to install the custom kernel). I have a surface pro 3, it struggles but basically everything works which is cool.
definitely check for known compatibility issues before you buy. I have a Pro 9 and the sleep/wake is pretty awful. It really doesn’t handle well docking/undocking or attaching/detaching the keyboard when asleep.
Using Arch on Surface pro 6 for couple of years. Nothing much, just to read something on Calibre web and jellyfin client
I run LMDE on my partner’s old surfacebook and installed the surface kernel. It runs smoother than windows ever did, battery life improved too, full touchscreen. Though I did install fedora prior to LMDE and the touchscreen functionality may have been better with that, but the system was slower overall.
I’ve been running EndeavourOS on my my SP4. It works great with the custom Surface kernel.
Don’t buy a 4 - it has heat problems and a shitty power circuit. As long as you get a 5 or newer, it should run great.
got nix on a surface go. works fine, but the storage is rather small, and nix store takes up a surprising amount of space
I ran into the same thing. Nix store got up to 57GB in size for me. I have lots of generations and upgrades ran which just continually fill up. Figured out you have to run garbage collection or use the optimizer (which takes a LONG time to run for me): https://nlewo.github.io/nixos-manual-sphinx/administration/cleaning-store.xml.html
I rocked a Surface with Linux Mint for a few years. It worked great and was much more performant than Windows. I eventually got myself a proper laptop because I was wearing through multiple keyboard covers with the amount of typing I was doing, but I still keep it around as a backup.
I’ve had Gentoo (and later, Arch) on my Surface Pro 3 for a decade. It’s fully supported, touch screen and all.
I ran an install party for noobs a couple months ago, and someone brought a couple surface pros. Mint seems to have worked great with them
