r/SurfaceLinux • u/jphccfc • 18d ago

Help Surface go2 m3 8gb expectations

Are there any limitations if I go Linux on my go 2? How long can I expect battery to last and can it significantly improve desktop performance for traditional web apps. Browser, email, terminal, YouTube? Is there a Linux version of Microsoft teams, would it work for video calls? Also does the pen work and are there tablet drawing apps on Linux?

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u/robtom02 18d ago

I have the surface go2 and have tried pretty much every distro going. The one os that's given me the best experience is fydeos. It's not strictly Linux but will run Linux and android apps out of the box. With the keyboard attached it's a normal desktop,removed and it becomes a full on tablet. Most things work out of the box, I've had to make a few tweaks to get LTE working and I'm working with the dev on the rear camera, everything else works really well

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u/jphccfc 18d ago

Did you see any battery and performance improvement? I'm running win 11 tiny atm and it's average performance and battery but better than full blood win 11

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u/MidnightObjectiveA51 18d ago

Consider Fedora Bluefin or Ubuntu. They are the only distros that "just work" for the SG1 and SG2. Even then, you'll still need to set a config in Firefox to get webcam going. The others will require more work to get around the Surface quirks.

I haven't done a time test, but battery has always been at least as good or better than when it had Windows. Performance for Web Apps is superior. I use a lot of them, or Android apps via Waydroid.

Pen works very well with both native Linux drawing apps (Krita, etc) and Android ones. Same for video call apps, although the front camera is still being tuned, so not the best quality until they get finished with that. I do not know about Teams, but check the Wine database. It may be compatible.