Windows keeps reminding be that I have to switch to Linux if I want to keep using my computer. It’s a rugged tablet from about 2011 that I still use daily for internet and some light Photoshop. Core i7 1.2 GHz, 4GB RAM, and the important part, a built-in touchscreen and Wacom digitizer. Keyboard is an external device that I don’t generally have attached. I grew up on DOS, so I’m not afraid of fiddling, but I’d rather this machine just worked. Any recommendations?
I figure I should follow up on this.
I tried a bunch of distros and settled on Pop! OS. It has the most touchscreen support for the aging two-touch device I have. Mate was a close second, but some of the store and settings pages don’t support touch scrolling. And I couldn’t find the on-screen keyboard. Gnome was also solid, but had some similar issues to Mate. It’s OSK popped up reliably, but would lose contact with the text field that I was trying to type in. Mint/Cinnamon was ok. Couldn’t find the OSK, and required a bunch of mouse interaction. Lomiri has a very nice system tray for touch, long-holding expands the tray and swiping moves between the tray items. But a lot of the functionality is hidden off the sides of the screen which makes general interactions more challenging than I’m looking for. Feren is just bad. Lots of things either have no touch functionality, or touches highlight, but don’t activate buttons. Had to use a mouse to do much of anything. I also made an attempt at Postmarket OS, but couldn’t get it to boot on my machine.