Hi! There’s no Surface on Linux Lemmy community (yet), but I didn’t feel like asking on reddit, so I thought that this community is my best bet.

I was thinking about getting a surface go, since I really like the form factor and have fond memories of my old Surface Pro 3 in Uni.

Now, there’s a deal going on, where they’re selling the tablet for under 300€, but it’s the low-spec one with 4GB RAM and the weakest processor. I was wondering if I would be doing myself a favor by getting a tablet with these low-end specs.

My usecases would be: Note taking with rnote/xournalpp, surfing, reading, youtube and maybe some light coding.

A FOSS system with encrypted home directory is essential for me, which is why I’m not even considering Android/Apple tablets.

I think I’d give Fedora Silverblue a shot, because Gnome is supposedly great for tablets and it seems more stable to fuck-ups. But maybe the meager storage space (64GB) makes this infeasible

Do any of you have any experiences with these low specs? Or even with a Surface Go 2 in 2023 daily use?

  • Dariusmiles2123
    2•7 months ago

    I have a Surface Go 1 with the 128gb ssd drive that I bought as a cheap computer while I got separated from my ex in 2019. I bought it for around 4-500$ with an included typecover.

    While I’m really happy with it, it’s not what I’d recommend as you really need to hook it up to a monitor when you’re at home. It’s powerful enough for me with its 8gb of ram, but the lack of upgradability is a long term problem.

    I guess yours sounds too expensive and already lacking in term of specs. If I were you, I’d at least look for a more powerful second hand Surface Go as Fedora runs perfectly on it (except the camera and slow blutooth for the mouse).

      • Dariusmiles2123
        2•7 months ago

        Also, it ain’t so easy to make it a perfect portable Linux device. Just booting from Usb key without Ventoy is a hassle.

        My girlfriend 2012 MacBook Pro was surprisingly easier to get Linuxed.

        • @N3M@reddthat.com
          2•7 months ago

          The tablet and 2 in 1 surface devices are pretty much laptops (at least same architecture and bootloader) amd they’ve been easy to boot other stuff with in my somewhat limited experience.

        • @Prunebutt@feddit.deOP
          1•7 months ago

          There is quite an active Linux on Surface community, so I figured that it’s a bit easier to get it running.

          • Dariusmiles2123
            1•7 months ago

            Don’t misunderstand me, it’s still a good experience, but it’s still the most difficult Linux optimization I’ve ever had since I started installing Linux on all my computers around 2005.

            But the form factor is really great if you move a lot and it’s a good tiny laptop with the typecover.

            I’ve never installed the Surface kernel so I don’t know how much it would improve the experience.