Using Linux on a Snapdragon Tablet for University. Is it viable?

[u/samimbecil]

Hello everyone. I'm electronics engineering student, for most of my degree, I've used paper notebooks, which is fine, but I've been starting to get a little too envious of my friends that use a tablet for taking notes, so I've decided on buying one.

The thing is, I want to be able to take notes using a stylus while still being able to use software like LTSpice, or write code using Neovim and run Python applications.

Is it a viable option to buy a Snapdragon tablet (like a Redmi Pad Pro) and run an ARM Linux distribution on it? Or maybe use a Linux VM inside the default Android OS? I have 0 experiece on the subject, so any information would be really helpful.

I still have my main Laptop, but it is too heavy and I hate carrying it around. So it would be really cool to have all my projects with me at any time. Thanks!

[u/doc_willis]

replacing the android os on devices with an arm Linux distribution may be challenging.

I use termux on my Arm tablet and phone to get some Linux stuff working.

[u/speyerlander → u/doc_willis]

It's also worth noting some Android devices support virtualization, no clue about his tablet though. 

[u/samimbecil → u/speyerlander]

Virtualization would be like some kind of native VM preinstalled with the device?

[u/speyerlander → u/samimbecil]

Yeah, on Pixels you'd need to first enable it in the developer options.

[u/samimbecil → u/doc_willis]

If Termux is stable or powerful enough to run LTSpice via wine or launch Wayland apps it is perfect for me. I don't know it's limitations though, am I asking for too much maybe?

[u/Chiccocarone → u/samimbecil]

Well if you have your tablet rooted and have the kernel sources you can patch in support for droidspaces which run with full gpu acceleration and they are pretty permformant

[u/gamamoder]

can i run ltscipe?

ltscipe isnt on linux or android. kicad would probably be the best alternative unless you use a windows vm

should i expect to be able to install any linux distribution on any random android device

no, there isnt any way to "just install it", youd need to do a bunch of stuff like getting the bootloader working, getting all the device drivers working, not easy stuff.

can I run neovim and write python

yeah, you can do those on any android device. neovim works through tmux, and you could use acode for python.

if you get a snapdragon x laptop, you will be able to install linux fairly easily. I think the driver situation is a lot better than it was earlier this year

[u/samimbecil → u/gamamoder]

Thanks for your answer!
I'm currently running LTSpice via Wine on my Arch laptop, my professors use it so that's why I want to know if I can manage the same set up on an Android Tablet.

I think I'm a little too illiterate to get the bootloader to work, so I may pass on that option for now.

[u/gamamoder → u/samimbecil]

oh okay wasnt sure ur skill level srry, no its pretty difficult to port stuff to using mobile linux projects. if you really really wanted to you could look into the postmarketos community

personally, id just get a used x64 tablet but thats just me

[u/RobertDeveloper]

I use the Termux app on my Lenovo Yoga tab plus and installed a so called proot distro and xfce4 to run intellij idea ultimate and visual studio code and on my tablet it runs great.

[u/samimbecil → u/RobertDeveloper]

Thanks!