So I have been happily using my Surface Go 2 for a couple years now and don’t really have a lot of complaints right now. However, Microsoft being Microsoft and Windows being Windows, I’d like to move to a Linux distro because foss is just cooler and Linux is cooler lol.

I’m mainly using my Surface for school: taking hand-written notes in Journal, annotating and highlighting text in PDFs with Drawboard, and browsing the web. Very basic stuff. Not gaming, not really a power user either, so I don’t need any fancy distro that allows me to go under the hood and tinker.

Before moving, I’ve got a couple of things I’d like to ask:

  1. Which distro should I choose? Something similar to Windows wouldn’t hurt but doesn’t have to be necessarily. I’ve previously installed and used (K)ubuntu on an old laptop of mine and it worked fine. I’ve heard that Mint is more or less one of the best choices for transitioning since it “just works” and has pretty much anything you could want right off the bat - settings and drivers and such. Is Mint fine for a Surface Go 2? I can add my specs if needed.

  2. Do you have recommendations for a notes taking app and a PDF reader that allows for editing, annotating, highlighting text? I’ve had a thorough chat with GPT (don’t judge) and have been recommend Xournal++ which is apparently also available on Linux. I’ve played around with it a little and it seems fine, but I’d also take recommendations from the community if you have any.

  3. Would I be fine running Linux off an SD card that I have inserted in my device? The interal storage of the Surface is quite limited with 120GB, so it has an SD card slot to expand its storage; my SD card has another 120GB on it. I’ve mostly been fine just using the internal storage, but it’s slowly running out, so I will likely have to use the SD card at some point. Should I make the effort of moving all my data - like documents, photos and stuff - to the SD card and install Linux onto the internal storage itself alongside Windows, or would I also be fine installing Linux onto the SD card? Apparently, this is not ideal because of slower read and write speeds compared to the built-in SSD (?) storage; moving all the data is not too much fun either, however.

  4. Is stylus/Surface Pen support a thing on Linux? And will the Surface keyboard work fine too? I imagine yes, but I don’t know for sure. That would be a must for whatever distro I choose since it’s the primary way of taking notes and typing for me.

That should be it, I think. Anything else that might be interesting for me or important to know?

  • hotspur@lemmy.ml
    8·
    8 hours ago

    I’ve been in-process trying to flip a surface pro 6 into a Linux tablet for a while now. Can’t answer all your questions but can provide a few. First things first: https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface

    That’s your hub for most of tue stuff you’ll need to do it. You can look up your hardware in their feature matrix and see what is supported.

    Generally touch and stylus work. Things like camera are much more hit or miss.

    In terms of distro… welp it’s always kinda impossible to make a “right choice”. Everything will have pros and cons. Originally uninstalled arch just to see if I could. And yes, it turns out you can. Problem is, I use Ubuntu on a couple of spare computers as servers and such and I’m more familiar with how that works, so I thought ok I’m having some trouble getting a couple things to work I’ll just put Ubuntu on here and then I don’t have to remember two different ways of using the OS (mind you I was using gnome in all cases, so really wasn’t a big deal to have to research a few arch specific things).

    Problem is, Ubuntu fails to install. I’ve tried about 4 times and it always fails out, and I can’t figure out a way to access any install logs after the fact.

    So I’m probably gonna put arch back in there because it worked, mostly.

    You’ll have to be willing to tinker a bit and get used to some different ways of interacting. Overall touch was pretty ok and gnome in my case was pretty nice for navigation.

    I was using an app called xournal++ for stylus/notetaking, and it seems very well featured for a Linux stylus application. That said, my pen stopped working a while ago, and I could not figure out how to fix it, which is why I was gonna try again with Ubuntu. (Xournal wasn’t to blame for the stylus problems, just couldn’t use it because stylus was useless)

    I still think it’s a good learning experience, and probably a good way to resurrect an older piece of tech to usefulness. Personally I wanted to replicate stuff I do on my iPad, but be able to fully Adblock YouTube, etc. my iPad is way better for reading and handwriting, but otherwise is an obnoxious locked down operating system that I find more and more annoying. Basically it’s a great tablet but limited. Whereas like the windows version the surface is not a great tablet, but an acceptable hybrid.

    • hotspur@lemmy.ml
      3·
      8 hours ago

      Oh and at least with my hardware, the surface keyboard and trackpad worked out of the box, no problems. I’d pay special attention to any special wireless drivers you might need because if wireless doesn’t come up, you can’t hardwire the thing to get the driver. (USB could do it though I guess)

  • data1701d (He/Him)@startrek.websiteEnglish
    3·
    7 hours ago

    As an ex-Linux on Surface Go 1 user, I didn’t like the experience. Under Debian Testing, it was always mostly usable, but I’d come across the weirdest bugs, like graphics glitches. Also, last time I checked, the camera was miserable to set up - I got it working, but it’s really weird. Secure boot was also really painful.

    Running Linux on the Surface Go made me curse the Surface line and put the Go in a junk drawer. I might go back to it one day, but I have no reason at the moment. Still, if you already own one, it’s worth a shot.

    If you go ahead, though:

    1. Whatever easily supported the linux-surface kernel.
    2. I really don’t know. I don’t quite use Linux in that manner.
    3. No. SD cards are slow, so the system will take an eternity to load. Put personal files on the SD and the install internal, not the other way around.
    4. I have no idea about the pen, but the keyboard mostly worked fine. I remember it having problems in the Debian installer, so I had to use a USB hub dongle and a keyboard to install, but after that I remember it working pretty well both mainline and linux-surface.
    • DruidOPAEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      Thanks for your input. Maybe things have changed for the better? I doubt a github page with a detailed wiki and guide on how to setup the device for Linux would exist if the performance were as bad as you describe it. Then again, maybe there is a big difference between Go 1 and 2. I’ll give it a go and see if it works

      • jacksilver@lemmy.world
        2·
        4 hours ago

        I commented further up, but will add here. I also have a Go 1 and Ubuntu worked okay. Webcam was definitely a no go, but it ran well enough for some productivity and light gaming.

        Only thing I really hate is hibernate doesn’t really work on Linux. For a tablet, maybe you always keep yours on, but I liked hibernate to help keep the battery going longer.

  • bzLem0n@lemmy.ca
    21·
    6 hours ago
    1. Linux Mint Debian Edition if you must use Mint and stick with KDE plasma desktop on whichever distro. I’d recommend avoiding ubuntu and Manjaro.
    2. Xournal++ is the only one for this purpose I’ve heard recommended. I use Zim for what I need.
    3. It’s going to be slow and will wear out the SD card eventually but it deserves consideration. I strongly recommend keeping the already installed Windows and using a SD card or USB C drive for Linux, particularly if you’re still intending to actively use it for note taking. You could use a USB C device like a NVMe enclosure or something that supports UAS and get good speed on the Linux install if the Surface supports UAS.
    4. Nothing to offer.
    5. Make sure your backups of anything you don’t want to lose on the Surface are up to date before you start anything. Linux installers will normally prefer an internal disk so if you forget to change that when installing all those files will be gone.
  • buckykat [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    3·
    7 hours ago

    Xournal++ is good for taking notes with a stylus and annotating PDFs, I’ve used it for years.

    I run PopOS on my Lenovo Flex, it supports the stylus and all other hardware out of the box. The only tweak I had to do was in firefox’s about:config to make it treat touch inputs differently than mouse inputs.

  • Guenther_Amanita 🍄@slrpnk.netEnglish
    3·
    7 hours ago

    1. Distro choice

    I would recommend you either Aurora or Bluefin.
    Both are pretty much the same, but differ in their desktop environment.

    Traditionally, Gnome (Bluefin) always has been the champion in terms of being tablet-like, but from what I’ve heard, KDE has surpassed Gnome in terms of how well it works as a tablet UI.

    You can install the one or the other, and then later “rebase” to the other variant without needing to reinstall anything if you want to try the “competitor” or if you’re unhappy.

    This basically switches out the base system, but your installed apps and pictures are decoupled and kept. Like just doing a big update :D

    Why do I recommend you exactly that, and not just base Fedora or Kubuntu or whatever?

    Simple - you need to install the linux-surface kernel (and stuff), because without it, nothing will work, no stylus, no sleep, no battery, basically nothing.

    But said modified kernel is nothing ordinary, and might shit itself randomly.

    Not only would you have to install everything by hand, which was a task that not only let me return to Windows once, but twice as Linux noob! It also causes a lot of headache when you have to spend your evening fixing it via CLI or whatever.

    Here uBlue comes handy: you can “fix” your system with just one click.

    • Smort silica rock not thinking?
    • Grub says “NØ” after system update?
    • Me not care, me pressing space while booting, me selecting yesterday image, me watching YouTube when eating because me don’t care, knowing that dev daddy is already working on fix that ship tomorrow.

    You don’t even have to do manual updates or whatever, everything is done in the background for you, just like on your smartphone.

    You have to select the “I have a Surface device” option, and then everything comes pre-bundled and (hopefully) just werks™

    2. Note taking and PDFs

    I don’t know 🤷

    3. SD card

    🤷

    4. Stylus

    I believe KDE is better, because it has many wacom tablet input settings and features, but I sold that crappy Surface ages ago when Gnome was the obvious choice. The 🤷 also applies here I guess, because it was two years ago and felt like a completely different age compared to today.

    • DruidOPAEnglish
      1·
      7 hours ago

      According to the github page I’ve linked to, I shouldn’t need to install linux-kernel. Which Surface were you trying to install Linux onto? Thanks for the help :)

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
    4·
    8 hours ago
    1. Up to you, but the most popular are that way for a reason. LiveUSB test drive whatever sounds good. I would recommend AGAINST messing with more advanced things like immutable distros, Arch, or Gentoo until you’re more familiar with your surroundings. Fedora or Ubuntu derivative is an easy first choice.
    2. Xournal is pretty popular and works really well with pen input
    3. Not long term. The constant I/O will kill the card pretty swiftly. USB flash or SSD would be better.
    4. Yup.