Are you guys still using microsoft ?
I’m on the hunt for a replacement for my Surface, but sure as shit not getting anything with copilot. Curious what alternatives are out there.
Linux options seem a little light on the tablet front.
I put Mint on my Surface Pro 5, it works quite nicely so far. Granted I do “typical” stuff on it like web browsing, email, basic picture editing, and some chats, but for those things everything’s working fine.
The only different part of the install was installing the Surface kernel after the fact: https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface
Great to know! Does the pen still generally work for writing/notes? Also any clue if things work well with the newer generations?
Last I dug into Linux on the SP, it was a 3-4 generation lag on stable compatibility. My tablet is nearing EOL (because the charge port sucks and mine doesnt support USB-C charging as a fallback). If I replace it I don’t love replacing it with something used, 4 years old, that may have a short life.
The pen seems to work fine so far.
They show fairly decent compatibility with newer models: https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Supported-Devices-and-Features#feature-matrix
Looks like the SP5 - 7 are the sweet spot however.
seems like raspberry pi os on touchscreen devices supports on-screen keyboards and basic touch-screen features. There’s also the Librem 11 tablet, that runs linux on an Intel chip with Gnome.
Why are linux options light on the tablet front? It should work the same as on a laptop
Touch inputs can be a little messy, driver support for closed source hardware (e.g., MS Surface) is understandably rocky, and I’ve had bad experience with battery longevity especially on open source hardware.
My 6-year-old SP battery still has ~70% capacity, which is teriffic. I have had other laptops lose 90% of their capacity after just a year or two, so I’m skeptical of the tablet market.
I’m not saying good Linux tablets don’t exist, just that I’m looking for recommendations since the waters feel murkier to me.
Ah okay that makes sense. Too bad the drivers are closed source that might be the cause of a lot of these issues
Mint runs great on my dell tablet. Touch screen works fine although I haven’t tried it with a pen yet.
Nice. Which model is it?
Dell Latitude 5290. It’s starting to show it’s age but linux has made it snappy. Even runs lightweight steam games.
Nice
I know this is an old comment but for anyone in the future that’s wondering, I’m happy to say the Dell Pen does work out of the box on Mint. I tested with Krita and even the pressure sensitivity works perfectly!
I still play Gears of War and Forza, unfortunately. Hopefully someone gets native Microslop games working on Linux soon.
Yeah… It is the Windows that finally pushed me the fastest to install Linux. I was very comfortable with Debian servers as part of my work, but never managed to switch my daily driver. Two weeks ago that happened. Peace…
Debian servers… But what direction did you go for your daily driver? There is no wrong answer, but I like hearing how people migrate over.
I was the same as you, btw, started with Debian servers be it an Apache Cloudstack hypervisor, or k8s host.
But because I decided to go with a tiling Windows manager, somehow I ended up down the hyprland rabbit hole on Arch.
So I haven’t felt the need to go with a tiling compositors. I already use multiple munitors, and kind of have designated spots for the apps I use.
I love stability and don’t want any surprises after Windows made enough surprises. So decided to go with Debian Trixie, and KDE.
But I use Arch in my spare laptop, btw. EndeavorOS where I experiment some stuff. Maybe down the line I will give hyprland a try on my spare first.
EndeavorOS… I’ve been wanting to try that… Although I heard some good things about CachyOS and need to try that one first.
That said if you’re on the hyprland journey, you may look at Omarchy, it is basically Arch with hyprland preconfigured. Not a huge deal, but simple for a test.
I am trying to see if I can get away switching to linux
I have… Moved my gaming over to it… Admittedly better since I don’t play anything like cod or bf. But you can keep a dual boot just in case. Still plays horizon zero dawn, fallen Jedi, borderlands 4(probably better on Linux), and Doom Eternal. Also Rocket League.
If you’re truly interested, reach out to the community. We got your back.
Are you using pop!_os or another distro ?
Uh… My journey actually started with Nobara after researching. But I wanted to try hyprland, so switched to Arch.
One of the things I like about Arch is the yay util designed to build packages basically straight from GitHub, and provide an easy way to upgrade them.
I will also go ahead and say that jumping straight to Arch is a bad idea. I would look at Ubuntu or Fedora first. Arch pushes updates really quickly and it can occasionally cause issues.
Thanks for you answer. I’m a novice concerning linux. I wish too leave microsoft but i’m a bit afraid of breaking my computer.
So far i’m hesitating between mint and pop!_os in dual boot
Honestly, I would say either of those are good options to start with. I sincerely doubt fully breaking the PC. Maybe research Linux for your GPU, you may have multiple options. It may be worth a second hard drive so you can easily swap back and forth until you are fully comfortable. Dual booting on the same HDD is also possible, but more annoying.
Personal issue I ran into: motherboard customization on my big gamer doesn’t work without Windows… Not a huge deal, but my Rainbow LED runs its animation in reverse. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Good idea ! I will install it on an external HDD (I have a laptop), so if there is any problem my computer will still be safe. And once i’ll will be use to it (in 6 months or a year maybe) I can fully install in in place of Windows ! It’s a great advice ! Thank you !!!
are you looking at the newer version of pop os? It’s still in beta, I think you would have a better experience with mint.
I guess I am aiming at a stable version in order to prevent difficulties
If you’re worried about breaking your computer take a look at bazzite too, it’s an immutable distro so it won’t even let you mess with important system files without really really trying. it also installs the proprietary Nvidia drivers so you don’t have to worry about that either
Always remember you can dual boot if there’s software you can’t avoid using
I’ve heard ZorinOS is good if you want easy switch over from windows / want to keep similar UI
I appreciate it. I don’t mind different UIs. I have used Fedora, Mint, Debian, Ubuntu, Kali for some reason, Tails (I am probably on an NSA list). My problem is work software.
My next computer will be Linux because of all this nonsense. The only thing that was keeping me on Windows was gaming, and Valve has solved that issue for every game I play via Proton. Sayonara MicroSlop!
My current computer will be Linux, as soon as I stop procrastinating and clean up my documents and back them up on my NAS. Already did that with my travel laptop.
Eh, my current computer is a laptop where the screen only works at 60hz, but it’s default refresh rate is 120hz so I can’t actually see anything (such as the bios or boot options) until Windows has started and forced it back to 60hz. Otherwise I would have switched months ago.
I thought 2025 was supposed to be “the moment” for AI PCs. Dell and other manufacturers were sure as hell spamming the shit out of that premise in their incessant online ads. But then it all fell through because of the sagging economy on Main Street, and the fact that many people didn’t like AI being forced down they’re proverbial throats. So yeah, 2026 won’t be any better for this ill-thought out marketing strategy.
The year of the AI PC comes immediately after the year of the linux desktop.
This makes me happy, but then also sad.
I don’t even know what an AI PC is.
Adoption is slow because it doesn’t fucking work, not because they explained it poorly
Count me out especially if it actually is a:
- Subscription based
- Always online
- High latency
- Single point of failure
- Hallucinating
- Voice controlled
- Vibe coded
Monstrosity!
Oh? They found a way to make a PC with no hard drive, no RAM, and no GPU?
Install Linux, Problem Solved.
The em-dashes in the title don‘t fill me with confidence for this article about slop.
The problem is not the concept of ai pc but of microsoft ones that are network connected. I think linux distribution based around a local llm that is limited to assiting with the os and then have opt in for other capabilities could be really interesting.
Make Linux PCs and you will PRINT MINT. I WILL BUY ALL OF THEM!!!
🐧
Glad I dipped before they slapped Ai in every detail. Rip cortana.
I have a NPU for no fucking reason
