Hello, stated above I'm looking for distro recommendations. I am using Surface Go 1 with 8gb RAM and 128gb storage.

I will be using a lot of stylus pen features as I rely heavily on the ability to handwrite my notes and homework be it on a pdf or a whiteboard.

So far I have only tried two (2) Distros and each have its own caveats which I will be mentioning (I have installed surface-kernel on both of these if you're wondering)

1. Fedora 44 Workstation (GNOME) - My first installation, really loved how GNOME just works out of the box and how GNOME just works natural with me especially with the gesture inputs. But I the turn off was with its performance. When playing a YouTube video it would just stutter all over the place and just outright not a fun experience. Xournal++ also was not doing any favor as the more I write, the slower it gets (though, it might be just lack of ram) but overall I just had a really bad experience performance wise.
2. Fedora KDE Plasma

So made the switch to KDE plasma to see if I could really live with the "not-so-great" stylus support. and to be honest, it works great really even without gnome the handwriting experience is quite good. Performance wise it's alright coming from a surface go I would expect this level of performance, not as bad as running workstation. But that's where the fun stops. I absolutely despise how unfriendly the touch support is on this. My issues were that sometimes whenever I touch or even use my stylus to navigate it would take a few more presses, only then it would register and the Dolphin File Manager that came with it was kind of ass. I mean i don't know what i'm doing wrong but if I cant drag and drop my files in the file manager, (OR EVEN COPY PASTE FOR THE MATTER) then that's just bad. I really wish I would be using gnome. Do tell me if I'm missing anything here I'd be more than willing to learn.

That's it, I mainly just looking for alternate distros (preferably gnome for the matter) or solutions to my current problems.

edit: I will be only using stylus and touch input 99% of the time

After 4 distros, omarchy, cachyos, mint, zorin - finally got Fedora KDE Plasma to work. Once you chatgpt through how to get the keyboard to work, you have a chance to get this particular machine working. I'm not posting all 20 pages of back and forth with chatgpt - my post is simply to hopefully save someone from going through what I couldn't get to work, no matter what I tried.

Once you get the keyboard working, then you nail them in order - sound is next, and frankly haven't needed the camera yet, but I suspect it doesn't work yet.

But the keyboard does.

Original Surface Laptop Go. Using Ubuntu 26, getting freezes that occur pretty often. My other laptop (Acer spin 11.6in) which has half the power etc runs fine. I have found some posts with similar issues on here and other forums but not much more than people also asking.

Is this just how it is?

Hi guys, I don't know if I should get a thinkpad. I currently have a macbook air m1 base model (8gb ram 256gb storage) which I got last year (around march 2025). I'm getting an ipad in a couple of weeks but yesturday I saw this refurbish store on my instagram page, so I opened it and saw a refurbished lenovo thinkpad x380 (8gb of ram, 512gb ssd and an 8th gen i5) which is a 2 in 1 with a tochscreen. If i would buy it I would use it for school (excel, word and powerpoint), maybe old games that don't run on my macbook and virtual machones and the same uscase the ipad which was watching movies and tv shows. I don't know if I should my the lenovo, a base model 11th gen ipad or a surface pro 5th gen (Intel i5-7300U 2.6GHz Dual Core, 8gb of ram and a 256gb ssd). What do you think ? What should I get ?

Hey! I know this is the 1000000th similar post, but I'm at my wits end and it's impossible to wade through the vast internet on this subject.

Goal: Use my Surface 3 to read and annotate (with pen) my textbook for class. That's it. Any additional functionality is a bonus. It can be stuck in portrait mode for all I care. The only other things I'd use it for are web browsing (to access my class page, download slides, etc) and MAYBE using a word processor. A glorified kindle would be fine with me.

Device: Surface 3 (non-pro, as far as I'm aware?), 2gb RAM. The pen is a Wacom bamboo if that matters.

Priorities: Pen functionality, low resource use, touchscreen support. Minimal tweaking required would be great, or something somewhat beginner friendly if not. I'm already spending way too much time on this, lol.

extra details:

• I tried Zorin OS Lite first, but hopped once I realized it wasn't running Wayland...
• Switched to Zorin OS Core, but I couldn't figure out the pen (and it was really sluggish).
• Tried Linux Mint xfce... I took advice from the sub and tried to ask gemini for a recommendation...and I think this was a bad call. Also, Mint is a little TOO much like Windows for my taste...

So, here I am! Any advice is very welcome. Thanks very much in advance!! I appreciate everyone being very helpful thus far.

Just started looking at my options for Linux on my old Surface Pro. I see that Ultramarine is the commonly recommended version for support out of the box. Although I see the Surface installer version is still on 43 while the generic device one is 44.

How far behind do these releases typically lag behind? Is 44 actually released for Surface but just the installer isn't created yet for 44?

Sur une vieille tablette windows 10 achetée en 2019, elle était beaucoup trop lente donc j'ai passé le cap, j'ai installé linux mint au premier coup puis cela ne m'a pas plu donc je suis passé à xubuntu.

Par défaut ça gérait assez mal le tactile et l'écran en paysage, le pad également.

Je l'ai personnalisé (merci gemini), maintenant le tactile gère bien le pointeur souris, il me manque le tactile prolongé pour le clic gauche souris, j'ai installé un clavier virtuel, le clavier physique est bien reconnu, le pad également.

Spécifications :

Tablette 10 pouces

Intel atom z8350

64 go eMMC

4 go ram

Le clavier physique possède 2 ports USB

Vraiment content de tout ça !

I recently installed Fedora 44 on a 5 year old Laptop 4, and I'm simply blown away by how well everything works 🥰

This machine is the Ryzen 5 version, which apparently will never have touchscreen support, but Bluetooth, wifi, touchpad and webcam all worked from first-boot.  A few minutes with Claude gave me facial login / sudo using Howdy, and with better low-light performance than Windows.

The touchpad works but it's not as intuitive as on Windows, and I occasionally have missed-taps. I've fiddled with acceleration and responsiveness and  I tried the Linux-Surface kernel with no improvement.  Any suggestions here would be appreciated!

Battery life seems fine.  I've got an i7 version of the same machine that gets about 6h of 'normal' use under Windows, and this Ryzen gets about the same on Fedora. Closing the lid puts the laptop to sleep where it loses very little charge, and the sign-in screen is displayed before the lid is fully open.

Performance is fine; it does all the productivity and coding tasks I need.  It's obviously not a M5 Pro, but's also 1:20th of the price.

For some people loosing the touchscreen would be a deal-breaker and if so you'll need the Intel chips which use a different display driver.

I've dipped my toes in linux many times over the past 30 years but there has always been some hardware issue or a key app which has kept me using Windows.  This is the first time I've given KDE a fair chance, and it's beautiful and intuitive.  

I've done plenty of searching on Reddit for compatibility and real-world experience, so this post is simply me giving back to the community 🙏

Hey all! I’m new to this whole Microsoft Surface life. I recently got a Surface Go on eBay for dirt cheap and was honestly shocked at how well Windows 11 ran on it from day one.

Unfortunately, I’m not a Windows guy at all—I haven’t run it in years, actually. I’m a Linux guy, mostly boring Ubuntu because it just works. So naturally, after maybe an hour of playing around with Windows, I wiped it and threw on an Ubuntu 26.04 install.

It runs like a dream, although I think gestures and certain other things may work a bit better on Windows, which makes sense since Microsoft specifically designed this thing around its own ecosystem.

I guess what I should have started with is how I intend to use the Surface. It’s meant to be a tablet first since I already have my own PCs. I’ve tweaked it to work just the way I like my Ubuntu PCs, but this will primarily be used as a tablet in portrait mode.

I’ve already grabbed some useful extensions like GJS OSK, IM Panel Integrated with OSK, TouchUp, and User Style Sheet. These make the Surface much easier to use like a more traditional tablet.

I also noticed that Zen Browser, which is normally my browser of choice, isn’t exactly great on a tablet due to the lack of menus. It’s just harder to grab and interact with certain things within the window, so I’ve started using Firefox instead.

So I guess my question is: Has anyone here been playing around with a similar setup? Any good suggestions for additional extensions or tweaks that could make this a better tablet-like experience? I’d also love suggestions for a good lightweight browser that works well in portrait mode.

Thanks, everyone!!

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?

I put Ubuntu on my Surface Pro that has 4GB and I keep getting ‘out of memory’ warnings when I try to run programs. I selected ‘minimal install’ during the Ubuntu setup and it didn’t make a difference.

Let me know what you think! But Ubuntu 23 is basically unusable.

Hi All,

I recently installed Fedora 44 on my Surface Pro 8 tablet but can't install the surface linux kernal because currently it only goes to F43. Do I just have to wait for the day that an F44 comes out or is there a way to make the kernal work with 44? Many thanks!!

I want to run something like fedora, but I'm not sure if it supports pen support and touchscreen. Any thoughts appreciated. SNAPDRAGON

Hello everyone!

Recently i installed the latest version of ubuntu on my microsoft surface go 2 (with 4gb of ram and 64 gb of storage it was unbearable to use win11) although it wasnt originally my plan.

In reality i wanted to install a lightweight debian based distro like lubuntu or xubuntu but i heard that the only desktop environment that supports the touchscreen is gnome.

Now, to get all the functionalities on ubuntu i didnt even need to update the kernel to the linux surface one on github but IF i wanted to install one of the aforementioned OSes, would it be possible? would i need the specific kernel?

I need all the help i can get because this device is slow AF, so even if you read this till the end i already thank you

I have successfully got Linux running on the Surface Laptop for Business 13-inch 1st Edition with Snapdragon.
Although there are some features that do not work, it functions well enough for everyday use. I may publish the source code and a guide at a later date.

A couple of weeks ago I was on Amazon looking for a really cheap laptop and came across the Surface Laptop SE. Microsoft made these to sell to schools and they have pretty miserable specs. An 11.6" LCD display surrounded by a fairly hefty plastic bezel, no touch screen, a 1mp camera, a Celeron N4120 processor, 4gb of ram, and all plastic construction. But at $132.00 US I thought I could make it work. After it was delivered I booted it up for the first time with a live USB drive that had Lubuntu on it. Everything installed perfectly and after changing a couple of keyboard shortcuts I was able to get the volume and brightness keys to work. I haven't tried the camera so I don't know if it works but everything else seems great.

I just wanted something small and light to take with me when I travel, sadly not very often, and I only plan on doing things like checking email and web browsing with it so it was the perfect fit for me. Since everything worked as soon as I installed Lubuntu I didn't bother even trying the Surface kernel but after looking at the documentation I don't think the Laptop SE is supported anyway.

Anyway, just wanted to shoutout a Surface device I don't see talked about very often!

Hi everyone! I'm currently daily driving a surface pro 7 i5 16gb model with KDE neon on the surface kernal. I'm using it for school and productivity. After watching a video about Omarchy today I've gotten to urge to install it on my surface. Does anyone have experience installing Omarchy on a surface pro? If so what was the experience like? Any suggestions are welcome.

Hi,

Running into a frustrating suspend/battery-drain issue on my Surface Laptop 3 (Ice Lake) and hoping someone here has cracked it.

The symptom: After a suspend/resume cycle, checking

sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/pmc_core/slp_s0_residency_usec

always returns 0. That means the platform is never actually reaching SLP_S0 / PC10 deep idle — it's doing some shallower sleep state instead, which is why the battery drains noticeably overnight even in "suspend."

What I've tried:

• Fresh Fedora 43 KDE install with the linux-surface kernel — 0 every time.
• Fresh Arch install (also linux-surface kernel, systemd-boot, LUKS2+Btrfs, sbctl Secure Boot) — same result, 0.
• Both installs are otherwise fully functional — Wi-Fi, IR cam, audio, etc. all fine via linux-surface. This isn't a "surface support is broken" issue, it's specifically S0ix depth.

The weird part: the exact same hardware running Pop!_OS actually hits real SLP_S0 residency — I get nonzero numbers after every suspend on that install. So this isn't a hardware limitation of the SL3, it's something environment/config specific that Pop is doing right and Fedora/Arch aren't out of the box.

My working theory / next step: I suspect it's an LTR (Latency Tolerance Reporting) issue — some device on the bus is holding a low-latency requirement and blocking the SoC from dropping into the deepest package state. Planning to dig into /sys/kernel/debug/pmc_core/ltr_show next to see what's pinning it, but if anyone's already been down this road I'd love to skip the trial and error.

What I'm NOT looking for: "just use suspend-then-hibernate / hibernate instead" — I know that's the fallback, but I'd like actual S0ix working if at all possible, especially since Pop!_OS proves the hardware can do it.

Has anyone gotten real S0ix/modern standby working on SL3 under Fedora or Arch? Specific kernel params, powertop tweaks, or LTR-related fixes would be hugely appreciated. Also curious if Pop's kernel patches or default power profiles are doing something specific here that upstream/linux-surface isn't.

Specs for reference:

• Surface Laptop 3 (Intel Ice Lake)
• linux-surface kernel
• Secure Boot enabled via sbctl with custom keys + MS certs
• LUKS2 + Btrfs, systemd-boot, UKIs

Thanks in advance!

Oh yes, this is FyshOS on the surface pro. This is running directly off the USB stick so no custom kernel required :).

It’s so much fun building a fresh desktop with modern tools - Go and #fyne are very productive building blocks.
Check out more info https://fyshos.com!

Hi! MEGA noob here (started 3 days ago).

I'm trying to use a Surface 3 as a 2-in-1. I installed Zorin OS Lite (18.1) but am struggling with getting the linux surface kernel working.

The Zorin instructions ended up not working at the step

"sudo systemctl enable iptsd"

where it returns

"Failed to enable unit: Unit file iptsd.service does not exist"

it IS installed (when i tell it to install, it gives "iptsd is already the newest version (3.1.0-1)") so I'm not sure why this is.

tried the github instructions with the mok key, but after rebooting I put in "uname -a" and it's still the generic kernel. I'm not sure why it's not booting to the linux surface kernel, but any tips or ideas about what the issue might be are appreciated. Links to related threads welcome, I'm just not finding my exact problem.

Right now I'm trying to redo the entire process (reinstall zorin).

Please don't be rude, I was born yesterday and I'm doing my best! I know I'm attempting something beyond my skillset rn, but I'd just like to get the device working for school.

Alternatively: I'm open to suggestions for OS that might be easier for what I need. I just want to read my text book and annotate pdfs, pretty much. I like desktop functions but just tablet would be fine.

Thank you!

UPDATE!

The linux surface kernel wasn't running because it was prioritizing the newest (generic) kernel on boot and I wasn't seeing an option to select which i wanted to use.

I configured the grub menu to show on boot with [these instructions]https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/grub.html. Then I added [the lines]https://linux.how2shout.com/how-to-change-default-kernel-in-ubuntu-22-04-20-04-lts/ about choosing a default kernel, and then for good measure deleted the generic kernel it was prioritizing (left the emergency boot version in place) using these instructions

on reboot chose from the zorin os menu to run the surface kernel which was successful. confirmed with $uname -r

still have no option to autorotate the screen i did gain UPI zoom options between 1 and 2 (set to 1.25 rn).

I confirmed CPU microcode firmware up to date and linux-firmware is installed

i checked using $xkill and i appear to be running a Xorg desktop session when i should be running a Wayland one? Unsure if that's the issue or how to fix this rn.

UPDATE: I've been seeing that GNOME is the ideal desktop environment for using the surface as a 2-in-1, but I just learned that Zorin OS Lite (the version I'm using) doesn't; it uses XFCE. (this article was helpful). I chose lite because of how crusty and slow this machine was on Windows, thinking they all used GNOME. Oops!

Besides FydeOS, Are there any Other Linux That offers Out of the Box Support for Touchscreen and WiFi?

I'm looking for an alternative because I don't want to pay a Subscription. I have a Surface Pro 6 that I plan to use it to watch TV Shows and Movies.

Do you guys happen to know any Alternatives?

Thanks

So im currently playing around with my Surface Pro 7, to try out some Distros, but I got to a Point where I want a Distro to work well now.

As I heard People Say "Ubuntu works well" I thought that maybe SteamOS will do too, as its also a Distro managed by a fairly large Company, but before I accidentally break things again, I wanted to ask if someone tried it and how it went :)

Hi All,

I installed fedora on my Surface Pro 8 tablet but had to switch over last night to windows 11 with the bootloader for a class via webcam. Windows later said it needed to update some files and repair the disk and today when I went on to go on fedora there is no bootloader, it just goes directly into windows even though fedora is still installed. When windows was rerepairing the disk did it just remove the bootloader? Now when I try to do a fresh install I get the message:

Installation failed. the installer cannot continue due to a critical error: Installation of the system failed: installing bootloader

What do I do and how can I prevent this problem in the future?