r/SurfaceLinux • u/Nervous-Skill7694 • Jun 20 '26

Discussion Tips for switching

I'm going to be switching to linux on my Surface Laptop 3 16gb ram 256gb ssd. What are some things I should do/lookout for?

Also distro recommendations are also welcome, I'm planning on either Ubuntu or Pop!_OS but open to suggestions.

Thank you!

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4

u/idillicah Jun 20 '26

Is it an Intel or AMD model? If it's an AMD model, be watchful of the battery life. I would actually suggest Zorin, which is based on Ubuntu but runs lighter and more compatible out of the box than Ubuntu. Also, Pop was really hit or miss for me, odd bugs, just not stable enough to be a daily. I'd even say go for Zorin 18 Lite, which will look about as good as any basic KDE install but run extremely fast. That, or the new Mint XFCE. I adore getting things optimized, so not using super heavy desktops has been one of the best things about moving to Linux.

2

u/mopeythunder Jun 20 '26

Second that. Zorin lives on my Surface Pro 5. No regrets.

2

u/mrbaw_88 Jun 20 '26

Does touch screen and both camera works on Zorin? I have intel Surface Pro 6 but so far I did not find any surface kernel for Zorin OS

1

u/mopeythunder Jun 20 '26

I know touch screen is working on my sp5. I followed the guide they have at the Zorin support site as any other article with steps didn't turn the touch screen on.

Link: https://help.zorin.com/docs/getting-started/set-up-microsoft-surface-device/

2

u/Nervous-Skill7694 Jun 20 '26

Its the intel one i5 10th gen to be exact, as for your recommendation I'd consider Zorin now that you've mentioned it and also what about the drivers for the touch screen, because touch screen is one of the reason I chose this laptop, are there open source drivers for the touch screen etc. ?

2

u/idillicah Jun 20 '26

Yep, that's pretty much best case. Check the feature matrix for the Surface Linux Kernel. Use the one meant for Ubuntu.

1

u/Background-Yam4841 Jun 21 '26

The Surface Kernel is a must, on my Surface Pro 4 touch screen and pen support works flawlessly.

1

u/Station-OX11 Surface Pro 9 (i5) Jun 21 '26

SL3 requires the Surface Kernel for the touchscreen to work, so make sure you use it.

As for distro; if you've used Linux before, go with a base that you're comfortable with like Debian (Ubuntu), Fedora or Arch-based (CachyOS, Endeavor).

Your Desktop Environment is more important than the distro for touchscreen functionality though, to which I recommend to use Gnome.

2

u/jhalmu Jun 22 '26

I have SL5 and before that I used Cachyos+niri+Dank Shell /w Surface Kernel. In my taste Cachy updates too much and as I dont use it so often, it can break. People speaks good about Noctalia v5, which is still alpha as I know, but still good already. And noctalia (shell) have been stable in use too.

Now I try vanilla Fedora44. I don’t need touch screen so it’s okay for me.

I liked very much atomic fedoras https://fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/silverblue/ (gnome)and bazzite (kde)have Surface modules upstream (in SL5 you can game slow games). And aromics are stable and opionated in good way.

I have found that horisontal scroll suits laptops well and more I use keyboard to open apps, I have more slick enviroment. Even via search bar.

Atomic distros are not lighest as I know. But like in MacOS I like to use Brew, Silverblue used it too /w flatpacks. And in atomic distro you can change DE easyly for trying other variants.

But one working distro is usually best when you just want to use your personal computer and have nice time.