Post #656157

2026-03-15 12:52 UTC

Which model have you found? Mine is a first generation Surface Go so I didn’t think there was a previous model? I’ve honestly been quite impressed with it so far though, it seems to run Linux quite well! I didn’t even have to use the Surface kernel as everything worked fine with the standard kernel. The touchscreen worked fine straight away with no config needed. The gyroscope works as well for auto-rotate, although you may need to do a bit of config to get your DE to recognise it (there’s a GNOME extension to fix it). I even managed to get secure boot working with custom keys. I found it a bit tricky at first as it was difficult to find an on screen keyboard that had extra keys such as tab, eventually I switched from KDE to GNOME as their on screen keyboard was the best. You probably won’t have that problem if you’re getting the keyboard cover anyway, and tbh if you don’t need a good on screen keyboard KDE may be the better choice for a touch screen. I’m also quite impressed with Waydroid. There is a bit of a performance hit from it being virtualised rather than an actual Android tablet, but considering how weak the CPU is the performance is still pretty good. Its fairly noticeable if you compare the performance of a native web browser vs an Android browser running through Waydroid, but depending on what you’re doing it’s nice to be able to run Android apps since they’re more touch focused. It also doesn’t have perfect compatibility, I couldn’t get IronFox to work at all. The only bit that was a bit dodgy was the camera, you need to install libcamera for it to work and even then some programs don’t recognise that you have a camera, or if it does you just get a green screen. But I have no need for the camera so I don’t really care. Switching to the Surface kernel didn’t help either so I’ve stuck with the standard kernel.

Replies (1)

@wltr@discuss.tchncs.de 2026-03-15 15:31

Thanks for your feedback! The model I’ve found is named Surface 3, and it looks like it’s very similar to Go, just the names are different. However, that particular item was sold, so I need to hunt another item. I decided to explore all three models, the one I was considering, yours, and the next one too (Go 2). I’m looking for a keyboard only option, however I realised I may not really need any. Having a decently built tablet with Gnome looks good enough for me! I don’t care about the camera, it’s still worse than my iPhone, and I’m not going to have any video calls, that’s for sure. I thought of reading some books, plus writing a blog. It’s really challenging to write, as when I’m with my computer, I do work. When I’m on a phone, it’s not really comfortable to write long texts, and do any serious work. A Surface tablet with Linux, looks very good. Seriously, a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t aware you can get a Linux tablet at all! Thanks to M$ for building such a shitty OS, most people selling this tablet as garbage. I thought of buying a used iPad Pro 12.9 (2015), I have a couple at home, and it’s fabulous (especially given the price, you can get one used for about $100). And iPad Pro is just miles ahead of this garbage. But! The real OS (Linux) makes it better than iOS. Windows is real OS too, but since it’s garbage, iOS is still a much better experience in most tablet scenarios. As of today, I think I’d get a cheap used Chinese Windows tablet with a crappy keyboard, just to test waters. Assuming a Surface is a better device in every department (support, built quality, keyboard quality), and the Linux on the go is something I’d find useful, I’d surely go with monitoring local used market for a decent item. So, yeah, thanks for drawing my attention towards this. I’m long dreaming of having a cheap and light Linux laptop with me. And a used Surface looks decent for that. Did I ask you about the battery life and whether it sleeps well? Theoretically, I could turn it on when I need it, not a big deal. The portability is my main issue, otherwise it’d stay at home most times. But if it sleeps good and is usable in a real tablet mode (meaning you forget about a battery, it’s just always charged when you pick it up), it’s just an ideal iPad replacement for me.

Open ##656432