Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

changelog.complete.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 240 posts

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

#41

Post by LAC-Tech »

smallerfish wrote: post #37

I have a surface go 1 running (currently) PopOS, but have been on Kubuntu also. It's a great travel computer, combined with a USB-C dock, mini keyboard, bluetooth headphones and a wireless trackball. I use it to run chrome, zoom, bitwig, and the terminal; I don't think I've ever attempted intellij on it, but it would probably be ok (that said the screen size is too small for me to really want to code on it). Things h…

1) The wifi driver isn't in the mainline kernel yet for whatever reason. After doing a dist upgrade you have to copy the driver into two locations. This is documented on linux-surface's site; I wrote a script to do it, and it's not that bad.

That's a very Debian issue. It's the only distro where I've ever had to do silly things like that.

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

#42

Post by emilfihlman »

atraac wrote: post #19

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 i…

These have been issues ever since Surface Pro 3, I don't understand what kind of user testing they do if they can't catch and fix them.

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

#43

Post by hutzlibu »

Lucasoato wrote: post #34
atraac wrote: post #19

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 i…

Similar experience, with a Surface Pro 4 many years ago. After one year it bricked but thanks god I still had the warranty and they sent another one... Am I asking too much? I want a tablet with high precision drawing and low-latency to take notes about everything. Add an ARM processor and I'd buy it today, damn it.

"Am I asking too much? I want a tablet with high precision drawing and low-latency to take notes about everything"

This is actually quite much. Low latency means high powered hardware and all of that in a slim, passive cooled fanless design, bundled with the best possible display avaiable. I don't see how one can ask for more ...

(but I actually want the same)

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

#44

Post by csdvrx »

nicbou wrote: post #40
Lucasoato wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar experience, with a Surface Pro 4 many years ago. After one year it bricked but thanks god I still had the warranty and they sent another one... Am I asking too much? I want a tablet with high precision drawing and low-latency to take notes about everything. Add an ARM processor and I'd buy it today, damn it.

I tried a Surface Go 2 then bought the latest iPad Mini. There's truly no equal for doing tablet stuff.

> There's truly no equal for doing tablet stuff.

Lenovo X1 Fold: it's so small it's always with me. Great keyboard, OLED screen. I use it with a regular Thinkpad bluetooth keyboard for terminal work.

I'm now working on the Linux support now that I got the ACPI S01x fixed under Windows.

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

#45

Post by csdvrx »

ge96 wrote: post #2

Random comment about the device: I have the weak version and I'm amazed at its sleep battery preserve capability. Put it in airplane mode, hit the power button to turn off screen, then leave it on my desk for weeks, still has battery later on/wakes up.

> Random comment about the device: I have the weak version and I'm amazed at its sleep battery preserve capability. Put it in airplane mode, hit the power button to turn off screen, then leave it on my desk for weeks, still has battery later on/wakes up.

ACPI S01x done right is great: it can consume less power than S3 suspend and resume faster! (though after a few weeks, I think your surface may have gone into S4 hibernate)

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

#46

Post by highwaylights »

It doesn’t sound solid reading the author’s post.

- EFI didn’t work.

- The camera doesn’t work.

- The SSD is too small so needed to be topped up with a MicroSD (awful).

- Not lap-friendly for travelling (type cover).

- Windows 11 needed to be kept around despite not being used (and sometimes rewrote the boot menu, if I’m reading this correctly).

This sounds like a downright painful experience. I’m not sure why you’d want this, and it sounds like the author might be trying to force a tablet to be a laptop when they’d have just been better of with a laptop to begin with.

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

#47

Post by girvo »

csdvrx wrote: post #44
nicbou wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried a Surface Go 2 then bought the latest iPad Mini. There's truly no equal for doing tablet stuff.

> There's truly no equal for doing tablet stuff. Lenovo X1 Fold: it's so small it's always with me. Great keyboard, OLED screen. I use it with a regular Thinkpad bluetooth keyboard for terminal work. I'm now working on the Linux support now that I got the ACPI S01x fixed under Windows.

Oh that’s exciting to hear; I’ve always been a fan of some of their products but sometimes the hardware support under Linux is lacking for their more modern devices. Cool to see someone tackling it!

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

#48

Post by Tomte »

atraac wrote: post #19

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 i…

Xbox and IntelliMouse (Pro).

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

#49

Post by girvo »

least wrote: post #32
dredmorbius wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This presumes there is a good tablet experience.

This requires some elaboration. I'd argue that iPadOS offers an excellent tablet experience because it was built with its unique set of properties in mind. It doesn't behave exactly like a phone and it doesn't behave exactly like a laptop, but you do see elements of both in it. It offers a lot of applications that do all sorts of wonderful things. It's a great way to draw/paint, you can sculpt stuff in 3d, you can cr…

While I love my iPad, I love my Boox Note 2 even more. Fantastic device for what it does: reading and note taking with crazy long battery life. I charge it once every few weeks, to a month and a half with my usage patterns. Great weird expensive but fantastic device!

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

#50

Post by csdvrx »

googleide wrote: post #30

I've used one, not great, but why would you spec a Go out, its a cheap coffee shop laptop, and at least warranty is pretty good in Asia. Keyboard broke, okay do you have a CC, yep, well send you a new one, send us the old back, as long as it isn't your damage (i guess water or obvious drop) its job done and no charge to CC. Small delay as part had to come from Hong Kong to Thailand first. Much better than travelling…

> I've used one, not great, why would you spec a Go out, its a cheap coffee shop laptop

I've done most of my recent coding work on a Go, like, most of my sixel stuff!

The size is just right, so it followed me everywhere, and by spending 5 min on it here and there, I could get a lot of work done!

Also LTE is great: I don't want to waste even a minute looking for Wifi password. That's another productivity multiplier!

After that, I got a X1 nano, it's a great device but a bit too big for me, even it's just about 1 inch larger in both dimensions and about the same thickness.

More recently, I've moved to a X1 Fold, and it's even smaller than a Go when folded so it's now my favorite device! There were a few drivers problems I had to tackle, but now it's rock solid on Windows 11. Also, the OLED screen is ideal to use at night!

Post reply on HN