The app launcher UI is hilarious, the name is too long so it adds 3 more periods to it and cuts off even more of the name.
this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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Linux
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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Did you use the linux-surface kernel? It has additional community maintained patches for surface devices and detailed installation instructions for the best linux experience. From their feature matrix they seem to have full support for sgo2.
Not sure if its available on pmOS though.
No, if I figure out pmbootstrap and make a custom image I will try to get the custom kernel in. So far everything but the cameras seem to work.
I've been using Fedora KDE Plasma Mobile spin for a few months on my Go 2 and I've been pretty pleased with it as well, took ages to find a decent touchscreen compatible DE/WM, hadn't found PostMarket in my research somehow...
Nice! Does the onscreen keyboard work in the login screen? If it doesn't it probably will soon. My understanding is that the wayland onscreen keyboard issues have been fixed really recently.
It does, that was one of the biggest draws for me!
How's the battery life compared to Windows?
So far it seems really good. I haven't tested it to much though.
I've been meaning to do something like this to my Lenovo tablet but I was afraid that the battery life would suck; thanks for the info
I've recently installed ZorinOS on my Surface Go 2 as part of my migration away from US software. Had a great experience too so far, way faster than Windows 11 like 2-3x faster which is crucial as my base model only has 4GB RAM.
Only issue is my camera isn't working, but I rarely used it (unfortunately still have a work laptop for teams calls). Now just need to migrate rest of services away from Microsoft account and close it.
Uh, nice. Been thinking about installing it on my Xiaomi tablet, but I'm a little bit scared..
x86, ARM, are intended to be multipurpose, right? So why tf does the OS running on it need multiple layers of abstraction and have the right drivers to support common features? Wouldn't it be possible to standardize the interfaces for audio, hw video acceleration, etc. so that you just need one audio driver for all x86 CPUs, another for ARM and be done?
The CPU might be the same, but the audio chip, trackpad, etc. might be different and require a new driver.
Yeah, but why isn't that handled in hardware or microcode?
I'm not sure how you'd handle hardware in hardware.
Microcode is usually only run on the CPU, so in that case the implementation would be called "drivers". If you ran it on the device it would be called "firmware" and the OS still has to know how it address its interfaces somehow, and implementation is again called a "driver".
I mean some kind of unified interface spec and the hardware conforms to it?
Because when there's a new hardware function, the driver has to add support for it.
I'm wondering about that too and I think that this question deserves another thread. Maybe that's because, as there are no (or are there?) PCs with other architectures than x86, vendors don't see a need for standards like device discovery and UEFI.
there are no (or are there?) PCs with other architectures than x86
ARM, as mentioned. and RISC-V
So, h264 video playback at 1080px works flawlessly, and flac audio. What about
- other codecs
- hardware accel, e.g. for h265?
I was mostly just testing if I could use it without a keyboard and mouse. Which has not been the case with other distros I have tried. It's mostly firefox and the login screen having issues with the onscreen keyboard and the UI not scaling or accecpting touch input well that has been my problem with linux on a tablet.
Amazing that it works so well, nice!
However I can't help thinking usability improvements are urgent. The key one being how you need to bring up the menu with a 2 finger slide up, and then click again on the right button to get the list of apps, which is not even user friendly. Then, clicking on the top right window button to close the app, which you seemed to have difficulties to click on (with good reasons).
Finally you drag and drop a lot, can't you click on the music file directly without opening the app in parallel?
I also tested Linux on the Surface 2 Go once, I think Fedora, but it just wasn't smooth and stable enough. Constantly some kind of misbehavior. So I went back to Windows after all.
Yeah, I firefox and the login screen didn't work well with the onscreen keyboard when I tried fedora. I ended up using it with the keyboard attahed. That's why I was so excited when everything worked with PostmarketOS.
First mistake was using a microsoft device.
Daily driving a Surface Go 1 with Fedora since 2022.
It works really well except for cameras, sometimes bluetooth and being laggy 1 time out of maybe 30 startups.
The last problem can be solved just by plugging and unplugging the usb-c cable connecting it to a screen.
I’m really happy with it even if it’s not what I’d bought if I had gotten back to Linux already when I got it.
Not saying it can't be done. I know it can. And glad it can. Gives people who locked into buying a M$ product the option. That's part of the beauty of Linux and open source.
I just would never recommend anyone to go buy a surface for the sole purpose of running Linux.
I ran Arch on mine when I had it. And it had its drawbacks. When I bought my next machine, a Lenivo, I had so much better support. It made the whole experience that much better.
I hate Microsoft. And I hope they crumble. Every last bit of them.
What’s also great is that’s some evil company products like my wifés MacBook Pro 2012 or my Surface Go 1 might get cheaper than other friendlier devices once they aren’t supported anymore.
So, if you’re willing to go through some difficulties, you could get them for cheaper than something from Lenovo.
But yeah I ain’t a fan of these companies..
I have an older lenovo T590 that work great. And a T15. They can be had at reasonable prices. T590 has an 8th gen i7. The T15 has a 10th gen i7. They work well for me.
But yeah, absolutely get your point.
Very cool, thanks. How did you pair the pen?
I don't think they need pairing. It just worked for me. It's a generic one off amazon. The Microsoft one I got with the tablet broke after a month and the replacement one also broke after a month. I'm still kind of mad about it like 4 year later.
So...you just took it out of the box and it paired automatically? What's to stop it from pairing to the wrong device?
I think the tablet was just using it as a normal touchscreen. Therefore nothing to pair.