I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2 • Hacker News Board

Re: I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2

#11

Post by w4rh4wk5 » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 9:32 AM UTC

For what it's worth, I can recommend the Surface Go (2 and 3) as a tablet, even if you do not intend to run Linux. Simply because it's x86 and your not running Android or iOS.

While the actual tablet experience in Windows 11 is mediocre, the fact that I run plain, regular desktop apps makes the device so much more enjoyable to use. It's not a replacement for a decent laptop, but as a tablet, I'd pick this one over crappy Android or locked-down iOS any time of the day.

Re: I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2

#12

Post by inawarminister » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 9:40 AM UTC

Huh, I might go get a surface go* 1 (with 8gb of ram) as my Linux tablet. Trying to find out which android tablet I can install PostMarketOS on is a bit too difficult.

Any issues with the first generation?

Edit: sorry, my bad, I meant surface Go 1, not surface pro 1, which is too old I think.

Re: I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2

#13

Post by dboreham » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 9:44 AM UTC

Depending on your needs it may be easier to use WSL2 under Windows vs native Linux since you get full device support. Fwiw I used Surface Go in this mode for years as my "light travel coding" platform but have recently upgraded to the arm-based Surface Pro X. Much (much) faster than the Goen, 16G ram and 1Tb SSD available. Also a full sized keyboard - the most annoying thing I found about the Go is not being able to type quickly. The Pro X is physically larger but not much heavier. Since my bags are all large enough for it, the practical payload difference when traveling is minimal.

Re: I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2

#14

Post by frou_dh » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 9:46 AM UTC

w4rh4wk5 wrote: post #11

For what it's worth, I can recommend the Surface Go (2 and 3) as a tablet, even if you do not intend to run Linux. Simply because it's x86 and your not running Android or iOS. While the actual tablet experience in Windows 11 is mediocre, the fact that I run plain, regular desktop apps makes the device so much more enjoyable to use. It's not a replacement for a decent laptop, but as a tablet, I'd pick this one over cr…

As a tablet, you'd pick a mediocre tablet experience with a regular desktop experience over a good tablet experience? As a tablet?

Re: I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2

#15

Post by lucas_codes » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 9:47 AM UTC

inawarminister wrote: post #12

Huh, I might go get a surface go* 1 (with 8gb of ram) as my Linux tablet. Trying to find out which android tablet I can install PostMarketOS on is a bit too difficult. Any issues with the first generation? Edit: sorry, my bad, I meant surface Go 1, not surface pro 1, which is too old I think.

Do your research, the surfaces tend to have a lot of hardware issues. There are many threads on the support forum about people losing functionality like touch after updates. I have the surface pro 3 and lucky haven't had major issues, but it has series battery drain while powered off.

Re: I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2

#16

Post by ttarr » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 9:53 AM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #13

Depending on your needs it may be easier to use WSL2 under Windows vs native Linux since you get full device support. Fwiw I used Surface Go in this mode for years as my "light travel coding" platform but have recently upgraded to the arm-based Surface Pro X. Much (much) faster than the Goen, 16G ram and 1Tb SSD available. Also a full sized keyboard - the most annoying thing I found about the Go is not being able to…

I think WSL is overrated.

I haven't used Windows for years but it was forced upon me by my new employer.

Overall I'm not impressed, at least when compared to a full native Gnome experience.

Not sure how people are managing, any filesystem operation (on C: for e.g.) takes forever, also GUI apps feel sluggish and heat the laptop.

Re: I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2

#17

Post by dredmorbius » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 10:01 AM UTC

frou_dh wrote: post #14

w4rh4wk5 wrote: post #11

For what it's worth, I can recommend the Surface Go (2 and 3) as a tablet, even if you do not intend to run Linux. Simply because it's x86 and your not running Android or iOS. While the actual tablet experience in Windows 11 is mediocre, the fact that I run plain, regular desktop apps makes the device so much more enjoyable to use. It's not a replacement for a decent laptop, but as a tablet, I'd pick this one over cr…

As a tablet, you'd pick a mediocre tablet experience with a regular desktop experience over a good tablet experience? As a tablet?

This presumes there is a good tablet experience.

Re: I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2

#18

Post by hnra » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 10:05 AM UTC

ttarr wrote: post #16

dboreham wrote: post #13

Depending on your needs it may be easier to use WSL2 under Windows vs native Linux since you get full device support. Fwiw I used Surface Go in this mode for years as my "light travel coding" platform but have recently upgraded to the arm-based Surface Pro X. Much (much) faster than the Goen, 16G ram and 1Tb SSD available. Also a full sized keyboard - the most annoying thing I found about the Go is not being able to…

I think WSL is overrated. I haven't used Windows for years but it was forced upon me by my new employer. Overall I'm not impressed, at least when compared to a full native Gnome experience. Not sure how people are managing, any filesystem operation (on C: for e.g.) takes forever, also GUI apps feel sluggish and heat the laptop.

Did you use the WSL graphics support in Windows 11? If so then that is pretty disappointing that it performs poorly.

Re: I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2

#19

Post by atraac » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 10:08 AM UTC

I've been using Surface Book 2 as a work laptop and at this point I won't buy a single Microsoft's hardware beyond an Xbox. It was utterly bad. Lack of thunderbolt so USB-C docks won't fully work, lack of HDMI ports, insane thermal throttling, had issues handling 1000hz polling rate mouses(seriously), quite often laptop would just not turn on until specific reset combination of keys was pressed, general performance issues with time. Whole thing was also very fragile and scratched very easily. And the worst part - power button sticks out so much it was randomly turning on in my laptop bag or backpack, quite often heating really badly and discharging to death. I would come to work almost every day without power. Never again.

Re: I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2

#20

Post by Findecanor » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 10:10 AM UTC

w4rh4wk5 wrote: post #11

For what it's worth, I can recommend the Surface Go (2 and 3) as a tablet, even if you do not intend to run Linux. Simply because it's x86 and your not running Android or iOS. While the actual tablet experience in Windows 11 is mediocre, the fact that I run plain, regular desktop apps makes the device so much more enjoyable to use. It's not a replacement for a decent laptop, but as a tablet, I'd pick this one over cr…

I still use a 8" Windows tablet from 2015 every day, for the same reasons. I wish I could upgrade from the mediocre specs, but newer, better x86 tablets in this form factor simply don't exist.