Linux for Microsoft Surface devices. It is reality!

Should also mention Nobara Linux (which is funnily enough based on Fedora) has Surface Linux patches baked into its kernel.

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Yeah it works- and has for quite a while. My SP3 ran Ubuntu fine back in the day, but it didn't save it from being an unservice-able piece of shit with failing hardware that overheated in 5 seconds flat.

I'm somehow really surprised by the linux community embracing the surface. It's a horrible piece of hardware. It's designed to be short lived. Hard to repair or upgrade. Limited connectivity. Etc. I've had user come back with their surface where the battery had pushed the screen out.

The Microsoft ❤️ Linux image is a weird choice. WSL is neat but Microsoft will never support Linux on their hardware.

Greetings from a Surface Book 2 running Fedora 38! Everything works nicely (dtx included), battery life is great. Switching from W10 to Linux on this machine was probably one of the best decisions I could make.

It's actually pretty funny. Back around 2018 I bought an XPS13, being hailed as the golden standard of linux support on a laptop, and my buddy bought a Surface Pro (3 or 4, cant remember). With these patches, his machine not only ran better, but also had 4x the battery life, compared to my fully supported (on paper) machine

I highly recommend it! I've been running PopOS! On my Surface Pro 3 for years. It works perfectly, and functions extremely well with the form factor

I'm currently running EndeavorOS on my Surface Laptop 4. I'll admit it was a pain to get working right, especially since I have the amd model, but damn once it's working its so nice.

I've had nothing but issues with Microsoft hardware... Even excluding Xbox stuff, my SP4 had major issues with video corruption and hard freezes. Multiple RMA attempts came back defective or damaged, even the first party folio keyboard went bad. These were widespread defects and once warranty was up I was sol.

The only thing that somewhat extended its life before it went full spicy pillow was putting Linux Mint on it with some kernel patches.

Thank God this community exists, but I'll never buy another surface product as long as I live.

I guess I’m missing something, but I don’t understand buying a MS hardware product and then installing Linux, surely just buy a different product in the first place?

Same with people buying Google Pixel’s and then removing the stock Android. Isn’t the Pixel’s hardware rubbish, and the only reason to buy it the software?

I’m pro Linux, just not seeing the point of giving money to these companies and then installing Linux… I think some people do it with the Pixel as a protest, which makes little sense when they’ve given money to the company :/

It's all fun and giggles until you try to use the cameras. Most recent models are not only incompatible, but unlikely to be compatible anytime soon. SP7 owner using KDE Neon for years.

Also, consider REFind (https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/REFInd) when you dual boot. It's the only boot manager that supports touch screens.

That's actually very tempting. I always liked the form factor of the surface but I didn't want windows for it.

Very intersting thanks for the heads up.

My Surface Book 2 is quite long in the tooth at this point, windows drags on it but I imagine linux would fly. I'm surprised to see such extensive support for it.

ITs been a while but last time I tried installing Linux on my surface book 2 it was such a mess and had so many problems.

I'm actually looking into purchasing a Surface Pro 7/8 to replace my current laptop, and was wondering about compatibility for dual booting

Howdy! Just wanted to share that drivers for Surface devices (at least my Surface Laptop and a family member’s Pro) are now in the newer Linux kernel versions and you should only need this if you’re using an older kernel version. That being said, Linux Surface might add some nice improvements.

How does stylus support work? Are there good Linux apps for hand writing notes?

If I ever have to ditch my iphone for a different device OS, I'll definitely play around with the Linux distros made for phones. Like, lineageOS looks so cool!

I've got an old Surface Go I still use when travelling. I only ever really use it for watching videos, streaming from emby and the like. Occasionally I plug in a USB-C hub to plug it into a TV. Would this work well for that? I can see the surface go is listed as supported and it looks pretty feature complete, if it can make it run a bit faster and not give me any grief, I might give it a go.

I have Fedora on a refurb Surface 3 (not pro). It is okay, but I run into issues with chromium browsers freezing it. Still tweaking power settings, i heard it’s related to that. Might try Nobara since I hadn’t heard of it, probably has better defaults.

I've been tempted to try on my Surface Laptop 2.. I would miss Photoshop but I can live on PhotoPea

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Linux on any portable device is a must, Windows is just too bloated like carrying around your entire house on your shoulders