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?
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Not sure I’d recommend getting anything resembling a computer with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage nowadays, but it’ll certainly still work.
I’d probably start with a minimal Debian installation (or Arch if you prefer being on the bleeding edge I guess) and then add GNOME desktop and whatever else I need afterwards. I don’t recommend checking the box that says “GNOME” in the Debian installer, as that installs a whole bunch of packages you’ll probably never use, and disk space is at a premium here.
Performance should be doable as long as you don’t multitask a lot, but don’t expect any wonders as 2 physical cores really isn’t a lot these days.
Thanks for the tips. I guess it’s really a bad idea after all.
Here’s hoping that the pinetab will be in stock sometime in the future. :)
I’d say 4GB of RAM is barely enough. It’ll probably do for the things you mentioned. But opening a browser and surfing the web, or using modern Electron apps/software will quickly get you to the limit.
Another idea would be buying something second-hand / refurbished. It’ll get you better specs for roughly the same money. But probably not a Surface or a tablet, so YMMV with that approach.
Thanks for the hint. I guess I was a bit over-eager since I’ve been thinking about getting one for quite some time and now this “bargain” appeared out of nowhere. :/
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!
Thank you, but the other comments have dissuaded me from getting a 4GB device. ;)
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.
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 🤯
€300 euro for a device with such low specs seems like a pretty bad deal to me. I just looked online and the first result was a Surface Pro 6 with 8GB RAM and 256 GB of storage for the same price.
The form factor is what makes the device so enticing to me. But maybe going used is the way to go.
Oh, I thought the Go 2 you described was also refurbished because of it’s specs.
I’m quite sure they’re new. Out of curiosity: Why do the specs make you think it’s refurbished? AFAIK, refurbishes don’t change the components. ;)
Because those specs don’t sound like something you would get on a recent device. I thought 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage was the minimum now for Windows devices but I guess I’m wrong.
It’s a bit older, but the other comments kind of convinced me that MS just released a severely underpowered piece of hardware as the “budget option”.
Kind of untypical for them, especially considering that the surface devices are supposed to compete with ipads and Windows 11 is supposed to run on these things.
Anything that has less than 6GB of RAM nowadays it completely useless for normal use. Don’t buy it.
A month or so ago I picked up an 8gb model and it’s been really nice, I wrote a blog post about it if you’re interested and have been really happy with it. 4gb is enough for note taking & code writing, web browsing, reading, and YouTube watching (at low/mid resolutions) and I actually got away with those on a 2gb RAM 16gb storage Chromebook + Debian for a while. Still though, if you can spring for 8gb of ram that will be helpful, and a necessity if you want to do things like run waydroid.
Gnome works great, just be sure to set up the on screen keyboard and run the custom hot corners plugin to make it work everywhere. Also, I know that chromium doesn’t have the best reputation in these parts, but you’ll probably need to use either a WebKit or chromium browser for their touch controls and PWAs.
I went with Debian, but I can’t imagine Fedora offering a much different experience. Mine worked fine without a surface specific kernel, but results may vary from device to device.
Last, I bought mine used for $99 US on EBay. Not sure how it varies from country to country but at least in the states you can find older surface models in decent condition starting at $70 US or $100 US for ones in like new condition with a keyboard & charger.
Edit: beyond Surfaces, if you’re deal hunting and don’t mind more research I believe most 2 in 1s running Windows or ChromeOS will accept a custom OS.
Absolutely not.
Get a used Thinkpad X1 tablet. You find get a 16GB ram version for 300EUR. Works great with Linux without any tinkering.
I have the 8gb model and I cant recommend. Battery life is ridiculously low, it struggle with windows, but got a little better on fedora. Keyboard broke after a year, it was about 90euros to replace Overall it’s really overpriced, you can find better.
I have the 128 GB storage 8 GB RAM, it’s still very usable. I often get annoyed with the small SSD, I’d assume 64 GB is way too small. Also if I remember correctly the 64 GB version has much slower eMMC storage, while the 128 GB and up have a real SSD.
I have a Surface Go 1 with the 128gb ssd drive that I bought as a cheap computer while I got separated from my ex in 2019. I bought it for around 4-500$ 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).
It wouldn’t have been my primary device, but it indeed sounds too expensive now.
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.
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.
There is quite an active Linux on Surface community, so I figured that it’s a bit easier to get it running.
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.
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