Been trying to find a good tablet for productivity and recreation. Something that can be used for programming (Not web), and something that can play DRM content.
Ideally, something under $1000.
I’ve already looked at the Librem 11 and am considering it, but I want to know other (ideally, cheaper) options available.
there are no good linux tablets, for any price; by “good” I mean it works as good as an Android or iOS tablet. everything is from not-as-good to way worse and there are things that are downright unusable.
whichever platform you choose (Gnome, Plasma or any of the derivatives like Phosh, Plasma Mobile, etc.) the experience beyond the first 15 minutes (hey, this actually works!) is pretty bad. it’s certainly not usable as a main device that you depend on and use for actual work; as a dicking-around kinda project, sure, have at it.
before you spend that kind of money, my recommendation is to get an older Surface Pro or Dell Latitude 2-in-1 in the $150-200 range and see if that functionality is something you can live with. those can be had with up to 16 GB on-board and the SSDs are replaceable (Dells are more serviceable). kernel support is spotty, not all of the features work for all devices, mainly cameras and such; consult the linux-surface github.
edit: just saw this comment, my experiences are similar. the rest of the comments where people think what a device might work like you should disregard.
One caution on older Surface Pros: They are generally not serviceable, and when the batteries eventually go, you will have to replace the device. The 9th gen and later may be better. I am dealing with this right now in a 2017/5th gen Surface Pro. While it’s nice hardware (as a user), apparently the battery is glued-in in such a way that you cannot replace it without destroying the tablet. I’m currently looking to replace it with either a Lenovo ThinkPad X12 detachable or a Dell Latitude 7320 detachable, both of which are similar but (purportedly) much more repairable.
what they said. surfaces are serviceable to a degree (battery and SSD, screen replacement) even though they’re glued shut, but in the sense “this is a fun project to do at a leisurely pace”, not “I got shit to do with it tomorrow, clock is ticking”.
Dells are way more serviceable, they got screws and easily accessible components instead of cement glue from hell. if you’re going that way, make sure the camera sensors are supported, ipu3/6 camera support is spotty.
I’ve done several repairs and battery replacements on various tablets, but as an amateur, I won’t touch this one. I’m sure if you crack these things regularly you can get proficient at it, but given the complexity, I’m not sure it’s worth the labor.
imo android and iOS tablets are not even in the same league because they lack tiling WMs. I also think that transparent windows are a pretty important feature although I won’t be surprised if you could find some hacky solution on android. I guess my priorities are different then.
Some Microsoft surface models can run surface-linux pretty well
Surface Go 1 running Fedora for me. It runs perfectly even if booting from a USB to install Linux can be tricky and the Bluetooth is slow to puck up my mouse on startup.
It’s linked by usb-c to a monitor for when I’m home.
I threw Ubuntu LTS on an old Surface 3 and it worked without having to use the Surface-linux kernal.
My dads been using it for a year and Gnome works super well with the touchscreen.
Don’t know how these are now, but my buddy had a Surface Pro 4, and that thing made me regret buying what i had at the time. Ran like a dream, especially considering the form factor. Very unexpected
Have an SP4 now, running Nobara KDE, because I’m too lazy to install the surface Linux kernel on a different distro. It’s pretty great. I bought a cheap one, and it has some issues unrelated to Linux. In fact it runs a lot better and the hardware issues are alleviated slightly after removing windows.
Long story short, would highly recommend buying a not borked Surface and slapping Linux on it.Does Nobara have surface kernel built in?!?? This is news to me, might reinstall due to this.
Sure does pal! There’s a non-surface version, but as far as I know it’s the only distro that includes it stock. And on my SP4 it’s been absolutely butter smooth.
Ublue has variants with the surface kernel by default. Really, just use their hacky stuff instead of getting all the errors on your device.
I am sure their gaming focused bazzite variant has a surface version. Ublue fedora is way more secure than Nobara. Fedora doesnt support Apparmor by default, so SELinux will be more secure. There are tons of things wrong with nobara, and the performance increase is really not important (TheLinuxExp tested it and its like 5%)
Fair enough, I hadn’t known about Ublue. Give it a go tonight. That said, running Nobara, I’ve not had any unexpected errors. And it’s not like I actually do anything that puts any of my info to exposure on my SP4. No email, banking, messaging, don’t even log into my Firefox account. I basically use it for retro gaming, reading manga, and not a whole lot else tbh.
Having a device just for fun stuff… is interesting. The threat is not big but it is always possible. And in my honest opinion, after having broken every other distro model, rpm-ostree is just awesome.
Sorry, it sounds like you’re poopooing having something purely for fun? I spent less on it than I would a night out with the wife, and it’s got hardware issues that make it not a great candidate for a daily driver. So it’s a toy. shrugs
I bought a second hand Surface Pro 5 (2017), running Fedora gnome
I’ve started to write a review because I couldn’t really find one, and most of the comments are overly positive (as it often goes on Linux forums I’ve come to realize). It’s not done yet
But I can summarize it: as a tablet it’s not great but it mostly works. It’s certainly not for someone not ready to troubleshoot, and many problems have no, or no great solutions. Also gnome used with touch controls has a major bug (which, again, nobody ever mentions for some reason. It will be in my review)
As a 2 in 1 with little touch use it could be alright. The pen is quite good if you want to draw or write, even though there’s a small delay. The cover is okay, but you’d be better off with a quality laptop keyboard and big trackpad
I bought it mainly for reading, mostly European format comics (bandes dessinées). The resolution is great for that, and the size is good with a reader that removes white margins
Edit: to give you an idea I bought it for 190€ two months ago, with all accessories, good condition and good battery health (which does not mean battery life is good)
It’s not out yet, but there is a kickstarter from German company Volla, coming in the next few days for a 12" tablet running a Mediatek soc that will be capable of running Ubuntu Touch - for which you can use UT native apps, webapps, some Linux desktop apps via their “Libertine” container, and some Android apps via “Waydroid.” And Volla has an excellent track record of delivering on their product promises - in contrast to Purism.
I am interested in this as well. I currently have an iPad Pro and while I won’t be upgrading right now, I have been looking in the space for the future. I’d prefer something more powerful than and M1/M2 iPad to even consider switching. I haven’t seen much in the tablet space that is not Apple orAndroid, but while being performant. I saw that Minisforum has announced the V3, but it isn’t out yet. Has an AMD 8840u, 14" 165hz display. Looks promising, but I’d be worried about battery life.
If you don’t mind waiting a few months to get it delivered, the StarLite V sounds like it will be a great device (I’m currently waiting for mine).
Well, I picked up a Lenovo Duet 3i for fairly cheap so I could run FreeCAD on a device in my wood shop. It’s an Intel machine, one of those that the keyboard snaps off of. I’ve got Fedora Gnome on it, and it’s not too bad. The biggest issue I have with it is sometimes it comes out of suspend in portrait mode, and there’s no getting it into landscape mode with the keyboard attached, so you have to detach it, tip it a couple times, and it’s back.
It’s an x86 laptop, software is pretty compatible. You might go for a Yoga rather than the Duet if you’re looking for programming; the tablet flop hinge plus kickstand is a bit more of an afterthought than I’d like for coding.
I purchased the Star Labs Starlite and am hyped. It holds long and is x86.
I wanted to have a convertable to also draw which makes it perfect for me and making me write this comment. Maybe its irrelevant to you. Starlabs also has a normal Laptop I think but I have no experience with both.
Currently with my chromebook duet 3 I can’t really code without making it freeze or unable to execute code because its ARM.
I bought a chuwi ubook x and it is nice. I installed endeavour os gnome on it.
I develop on emacs with same PC config, run sql servers locally, maintain servers, office and mail stuff, all kind of communications, file operations, casting screen to a TV or projector, very good stylus and note taking abilities on my samsung tab 9 ultra dex mode with 4 days of battery life. You may think as an alternative
That new MinisForum tablet looks pretty good.
https://pine64.org/devices/pinetab2
https://pine64.org/devices/pinetab-v
For the tinkerers of course
Probably not what you wanna hear but a Galaxy Tab S6 with Termux, Dex and Keyboard is pretty great.
