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?

  • krash
    5·
    1 year ago

    I have the Go gen 1 with 4 Gb ram, for the exact same user cases ad you described.

    The compatibility with Linux is great, but be mindful that you need a Windows installation to boot from USB (!). But the pen and touchscreen works out of the box.

    The performance though is not the best, boot can take some time. I’d say forget about YouTube. But light coding and non-demanding websites could work. The form factor is great though… 😊

    OP, if you’re interested in buying a used one, we could perhaps arrange something, if you live in Europe? Message me in that case.

    PS. A Linux surface community would be great, I’d happily join it!

    • Oxygen9202@feddit.deEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      be mindful that you need a Windows installation to boot from USB (!)

      I have the GO1 with 8GBs and while normal USB boot sticks don’t work if I use something like ventoy it works without any issues.

      • krash
        1·
        1 year ago

        Huh, I’ve tried booting from ubuntu and fedora sticks with no luck but ventoy would?! I’ll have to try that and if it would work, my mind will be blown 🤯