I’m 43 and not really starting using Linux. I’ve dabbled with distros on and off over the years, but I never made the full switch because work always had some program or policy that just wouldn’t play nice with Linux. With all the crappy Microsoft decisions, bloatware, and ads I decided to try and use Linux exclusively on a personal device, and I’m absolutely loving it!

I’ve been working with Ubuntu as my main distro, and I’ve also been playing around with distros on a Raspberry Pi. To really challenge myself, I installed Linux on an old Surface Pro 3, and guess what? It just works! I was pleasantly surprised by how smooth the setup was and how well it performs.

I missing any key steps or tips to make the experience even better on a Surface? Any insights would be greatly appreciated. I was planning to buy a new tablet that runs Linux but this is working better than expected. I’m really enjoying the flexibility and control Linux offers and want to keep this momentum going.

I have read up and tried plenty, just looking for some perspectives out there specific to your tablet experiences.

EDIT Thank you for all the suggestions and insights! I’m going to continue using the Ubuntu build for the next few months. Still lots more to learn, but I’m excited to see how this goes. I have everything setup I need to function as a Linux only tablet experience. <sigh of relief> no more dependency on Windoze.

EDIT 2 I have been using Ubuntu for a few weeks and it generally works. The touch has been great but I do notice it is a bit buggy at times and the virtual keyboard leaves a lot to be desired. I did read this article today that talks about their experience more on a Surface Pro 4. https://www.binwang.me/2024-07-12-A-Review-of-Linux-on-Surface-Pro-4.html

  • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
    16·
    6 months ago

    You might want to look at Surface Kernel for Linux. The link below shows their matrix of features on various Surface products and support within the Surface for Linux kernel. You would install Ubuntu and then install these updates to make Surface hardware function better. They have a lot of bespoke hardware in their laptops and tablets that aren’t supported by the Ubuntu Linux Kernel out of the gate. https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Supported-Devices-and-Features#feature-matrix

    • Abdoanmes@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      6 months ago

      Ok this is getting to the question I had. I found a few YouTube videos that went into detail about updating the kernel. I was wondering what’s the purpose when it was working as well as it has. I’m going to try to do this and follow the guides. Initially I had to overcome a BitLocker issue and a bug where I couldn’t overwrite the partition. Once I finally got Ubuntu running I was ready to dive into making it touch compatible, but it was already there. I suspect this makes it even better

      • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
        6·
        6 months ago

        If it works well for you, don’t worry about it. The matrix will show what kind of support improvements you might expect over the standard kernel.

  • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.world
    10·
    6 months ago

    Whoa, I don’t know why I’ve never considered Linux on a tablet. I have a couple that are gathering dust in a closet, and if this is doable, it sounds like a fun project!

    • Abdoanmes@lemmy.worldOP
      14·
      6 months ago

      On this Surface Pro, touch, rotation, and even the pen is working! I didn’t expect it to just work and it is.

            • just_another_person@lemmy.world
              3·
              6 months ago

              Well all the Linux distros you see being discussed in this thread for PCs. There’s a much wider array of driver support in the kernel for x86 related hardware. ARM tablets, especially Samsung devices, have speciality hardware. Honestly, you’ll be lucky if you can get past any bootloader issues on a Samsung.

            • KrapKake@lemmy.world
              2·
              6 months ago

              Probably, android devices and especially Samsung can be locked down. I don’t know your model though I feel like there are 4,327 variants of “galaxy note”.

  • luciddaemon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    3·
    6 months ago

    I’ve been messing with linux on my xps tablet. It mostly works well, I just hate the onscreen keyboards right now. Maliit lacks documentation and modifier buttons, squeekboard doesn’t scale to larger screens unless you manually build a dev branch, and wvkbd doesn’t hide/respond to input boxes.

    As for UI, I love plasma mobile personally. For other touch friendly UIs theres: gnome mobile, phosh, and hyprland + gesture plugin.

  • zelifcam@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    5 months ago

    Is there a DE with an onscreen keyboard that can be used in the terminal?

    The onscreen keyboard used with Plasma (steam deck as well) is missing CTRL and other keys needed when navigating a terminal. It also fails to pop up on electron apps.

  • Lung@lemmy.world
    31·
    6 months ago

    I don’t think tablets are fully supported but I see gnome devs continuing to make steady progress there. Stoked for a future where (real) open source catches up to phones and tablets, we are close…

    • Abdoanmes@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      6 months ago

      Ok, that makes sense. I suppose a Surface Pro is still kinda a computer with a touchscreen. Overall I was impressed with how smooth the experience was and look forward to it developing.

  • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    6 months ago

    I don’t have Linux on a tablet right now but my first thought was that you might want to check into what Steam Deck users are doing with “Desktop Mode.” It has a touchscreen and virtual keyboard so it’s essentially a tablet-like experience (though it has touchpads and a few buttons, obviously, and isn’t a tablet). It runs KDE by default, which I’m not as familiar with as Gnome, but it might have more users than any other GNU/Linux touchscreen product.

    Last time I had a Linux tablet, there were also some Firefox/Chrome/Gnome extensions that made it more touch-friendly. Like instead of selecting text, one finger swipe scrolled, two-fingers zoomed in, etc. like a typical tablet. Not sure if that’s still an issue. But if you do run into an issue, it might already be solved by an extension.

    Hopefully, someone has more up-to-date advice. The tablet I had (and probably still have in a drawer somewhere) was an experimental Ubuntu Touch device and there’s been huge strides since then.

    • Abdoanmes@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      6 months ago

      Thank you, that gives me a direction to start researching. I’ve been wondering the experience and it seems like it has been developing.