I would like to share with you a very cool project that develops drivers for correct operation of Microsoft Surface devices on Linux. I myself use Surface Pro 6 with these drivers and everything works like a charm (battery life is good, cameras work, stylus, keyboard, touchscreen, screen). The developers are gods. From myself, I would recommend using Fedora Linux distribution, as I got the best battery life on it and didn’t experience any additional bugs. If you don’t like GNOME, you can try spins.

Lemmy community. tiddeR community

Links to project resources:

Awesome additional resources:

  • Reygle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    1 year ago

    Yeah it works- and has for quite a while. My SP3 ran Ubuntu fine back in the day, but it didn’t save it from being an unservice-able piece of shit with failing hardware that overheated in 5 seconds flat.

  • telllos@lemmy.worldEnglish
    61·
    1 year ago

    I’m somehow really surprised by the linux community embracing the surface. It’s a horrible piece of hardware. It’s designed to be short lived. Hard to repair or upgrade. Limited connectivity. Etc. I’ve had user come back with their surface where the battery had pushed the screen out.

    • beneeney@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I’m a huge Linux shill, but man I love the surface pro. It’s just such a sexy device lmao. I’ll mainly run Windows on it, because I at least need one Windows device for my work. The surface pro 9 has and easily replaceable battery which is a huge draw for me.

    • interesting_bat@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      It’s the best “laptop” I’ve ever owned. Overly expensive, but it’s legitimately the first laptop I’ve had that hasn’t died in a few years. It feels like Microsoft’s response to the Mac-book.

      It’s exceptionally bad if one wishes to repair or upgrade, as you stated. Outside of that though - performance, reliability… it’s been pretty good.

      As I typed this I remembered that in the past year it’s started hard locking seemingly at random requiring a full shutdown via holding the power button. So, not quite as consistent as a Mac-book.

      • telllos@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I’ve supported over the last few years surface pro 4 and hp X2 G4. They are nightmarish devices. The surface pro had constant freeze issues where people had to force restart them, then after two years, the battery wouldn’t last, but we couldn’t change it, because I believe the screen was glued. We had also keyboard and touchpad issues.

        Now the X2, same kind of system as the surface, but we have issues where machines become really, really hot. So hot that some have their heat sink burning the displays. We have issue where dust gets in between the display and webcam. Last but not least, your keyboard will die after two year of use, the small connector gets damaged bye folding the keyboard overtime. Making the machine unusable, overtime. Machines that are out of warranty can’t have their keyboard replaced and new keyboard cost a fortune.

        Now, if you take any professional grade laptop. Like a Lenovo T or some HP Elite book. You could keep machine in rotation for years after the warranty was over, we had 10+ years old laptop being used as loaner or for short assignments. Because we could upgrade the RAM, HDD->SSD, battery etc. Also don’t get me started on the connector, a surface had 1 USB A one mini DP and a proprietary connector. The x2 3 usb-c port.

        The surface are very expensive for what they offer.

        IMO, hardware should be very important for the linux community, it must be as important as software!

        • interesting_bat@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I appreciate your perspective. Clearly handled a lot more devices than I have over the years. My experience is about 3 laptops, and then a Surface with the latter being my best experience.

          When upgrading I’ll look at your recommendations.

      • zombuey@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I have a microsoft laptop studio and I love it. I had the previous Surfacebook pro and they have solved everything with the studio.

    • eternal_peril@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I cannot say I agree.

      I am a road warrior, a linux admin and a salesman. I have my SP9 ARM and while ARM on Windows has been a disappointment, the hardware is top notch and does everything I need.

      Plus I work in very dirty environments, so it is nice to be able to buy a new keyboard when needed

      • telllos@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        There are hundreds of better alternatives, to a MS surface. For linux enthusiasts, hardware should be very important, as important as the software, OS your running.

          • telllos@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Like I said, the format to me is the problem, any similar format will have glued or soldered component. It’s highly anti DIY by design.

            In a portable computer, I want 14inch screen, Replaceable RAM, SSD and battery, HDMI, USB-A, USB-C, a SIM slot. Maybe SD card and ethernet. I want a laptop format because it’s much more comfortable to work on the go. My work PC is a HP X360 1040 G8. It’s a pretty solide machine it’s not heavy. But HP has soldered the RAM on the motherboard, it has no Network connector and no SD card reader.

            HP has also removed the possibility to swap keyboard layouts in their professional range, which is very annoying!

            But as people buy into Apple and MS bullshit. Other manufacturers will follow into making computer as unrepairable or upgradable as possible.

            • FarLine99@lemm.eeOPEnglish
              3·
              1 year ago

              I agree that we shouldn’t support such an unrepairable devices. But it is too good not to use it. Sorry. My principles went away here 😁

            • HidingCat@kbin.social
              3·
              1 year ago

              So ergo, no real alternatives. People like the 2-in-1 form factor enough for MS to keep on selling them, and that’s why there are people who want to run Linux on them.

  • dinckel@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    It’s actually pretty funny. Back around 2018 I bought an XPS13, being hailed as the golden standard of linux support on a laptop, and my buddy bought a Surface Pro (3 or 4, cant remember). With these patches, his machine not only ran better, but also had 4x the battery life, compared to my fully supported (on paper) machine

  • rDrDr@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Very intersting thanks for the heads up.

    My Surface Book 2 is quite long in the tooth at this point, windows drags on it but I imagine linux would fly. I’m surprised to see such extensive support for it.

  • iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    It’s all fun and giggles until you try to use the cameras. Most recent models are not only incompatible, but unlikely to be compatible anytime soon. SP7 owner using KDE Neon for years.

    • wawowiwe@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      Surface Go 2 with Manjaro Gnome as a daily driver here, everything works fine, even the camera.

      • iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Theres some long convoluted explanation where cameras these days are not just a sensor, but a whole tiny ICC computer handing all the image processing, with little to no documentation. The effort required to make these work is very high, and i believe there’s like a single guy working on these.

  • Daniel@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Howdy! Just wanted to share that drivers for Surface devices (at least my Surface Laptop and a family member’s Pro) are now in the newer Linux kernel versions and you should only need this if you’re using an older kernel version. That being said, Linux Surface might add some nice improvements.

  • rizoid@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I’m currently running EndeavorOS on my Surface Laptop 4. I’ll admit it was a pain to get working right, especially since I have the amd model, but damn once it’s working its so nice.

  • Space Sloth@feddit.dkEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    If I ever have to ditch my iphone for a different device OS, I’ll definitely play around with the Linux distros made for phones. Like, lineageOS looks so cool!

      • DAVENP0RT@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Android is, or at least started as, a Linux kernel. I’m not sure where it sits relative to Linux today.

        • Sean@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          Uses the Linux kernel but there are real Linux distros for certain phones now (though in Beta)

        • smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          The OS we use on computers and servers was originally called GNU, from GNU project. Linux is one program GNU systems uses, the kernel that communicate with hardware, manage memory and more. But Linux kernel stick.

          Most people now call it Linux and Linux kernel. Android only has Linux kernel, an important piece of the system but only one and not the one that user directly interact with.

  • li10@feddit.ukEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I guess I’m missing something, but I don’t understand buying a MS hardware product and then installing Linux, surely just buy a different product in the first place?

    Same with people buying Google Pixel’s and then removing the stock Android. Isn’t the Pixel’s hardware rubbish, and the only reason to buy it the software?

    I’m pro Linux, just not seeing the point of giving money to these companies and then installing Linux… I think some people do it with the Pixel as a protest, which makes little sense when they’ve given money to the company :/

    • Cuttlefishcarl@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Buying new, sure, what you’re saying makes sense. I think buying used for the form factor or whatever and not wanting windows is a fine choice, though.

    • deweydecibel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Same with people buying Google Pixel’s and then removing the stock Android. Isn’t the Pixel’s hardware rubbish, and the only reason to buy it the software?

      Because Pixel allows the removal of stock android where some phones, like Samsung’s, actively prevent it.

      But you’re not entirely wrong. There are non-Pixel phones with better hardware and unlockable bootloaders. Often it’s a preference thing. Though it should be said, the more popular the phone, the more likely it has robust support from the custom rom community, and Pixels are popular.

      Also, “stock Android” doesn’t mean “everything is accessible and configurable” Android. They may put a Pixel-based rom right back on, just a version that’s not so restrictive. Many don’t need a reason to use custom roms beyond just having more knobs and levers for their phone than stock allows them.

      Honestly, one of the major reasons I use Lineage, beyond the big obvious reasons, is solely to keep the “Hold back button to kill foreground app” function that stock android removed long ago.

      • FarLine99@lemm.eeOPEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Pixel phones allow to relock bootloader on Custom ROMS, that’s why developers use Pixel devices. Good firmware support is also around.

    • kbity@kbin.social
      1·
      1 year ago

      In the case of the Surface Go family, there isn’t really anything comparable from other companies. It’s unironically the best compact tablet I’m aware of that you can put Linux on, and it runs Pop!_OS without issue once you disable Secure Boot. The only better Linux tablet for me would be an iPad Mini, but you can’t put Linux on one of those and even if you could it’s ARM-based so most proprietary apps won’t work on it.

      In general, your tablet options for something smaller and handier than full-size 2-in-1s are pretty limited if you don’t want to be running iPadOS, so excluding Microsoft’s devices from the running if you want to put Linux on your tablet is pointless. Yeah, buying a Surface Laptop to put Linux on there is a bit weird, but I can see the Surface Pro family yielding a good ARM Linux tablet some day.

    • marmarama@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I wouldn’t say the Pixel line’s hardware is rubbish, more that Google is focused on having a polished “it just works” experience rather than trying to differentiate themselves by having the fastest, biggest, newest hardware in the Android market.

      The mobile market hit the “diminishing returns” point quite a while ago and for a lot of people - probably the majority - the only reasons to upgrade are security updates ending, or because a non-replaceable battery is getting to the end of its life.

      I used to upgrade every 12-18 months religiously, but now my Pixel 5 is coming up on 3 years old and I’d happily keep it another few years with a battery replacement, if the updates weren’t going to end shortly.

    • Cloudless ☼@feddit.ukEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Because some people purchase and use devices for practical purposes, not just ideological.

      Perhaps the Surface hardware is the most practical for some people?

      • deweydecibel@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Also, Linux Surface is maintained for older devices, which will be useful when Windows 10 support ends.

      • emptyother@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Jup. Surface Pro: Very lightweight, solid, powerful (for its size), fan-less (some models), both tablet and laptop, has an okay stylus. Whats not to like? Oh, right, the default OS. 😊

        • deweydecibel@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          And that some models can’t upgrade to 11, so support for them ends when Windows 10 support ends. Linux Surface will extend their life.

  • bfr0@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’ve had nothing but issues with Microsoft hardware… Even excluding Xbox stuff, my SP4 had major issues with video corruption and hard freezes. Multiple RMA attempts came back defective or damaged, even the first party folio keyboard went bad. These were widespread defects and once warranty was up I was sol.

    The only thing that somewhat extended its life before it went full spicy pillow was putting Linux Mint on it with some kernel patches.

    Thank God this community exists, but I’ll never buy another surface product as long as I live.

  • jonne@infosec.pubEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    That’s actually very tempting. I always liked the form factor of the surface but I didn’t want windows for it.