this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
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Just putting out feelers, anyone here run Linux on a surface pro 4 or 5? What distro did you use, and how did it go?

Edit: I've pulled the trigger on a Surface Pro 4. I'll make a new post in a week with my early impressions, which distro I've gone with, etc etc etc.

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[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

A thread made just for me.

I have a i5 256gb Surface Pro 5 running Pop_OS. Prior to that, I ran Ubuntu and prior to that I ran Fedora for a year or so.

Battery life is much worse than with Windows thanks to Windows keeping secrets about suspended sleep or something. I’m not a wizard I just follow guides and fart so that’s the most technical explanation you’ll get on that.

Webcam doesn’t work on any of the distros, you’ll want to install the Linux Surface kernel after installation to enable touchscreen and pen support. Not an issue for me but could be if you use it a lot.

After all that though, Linux of most flavours works very well. I fully removed Windows as I was getting issues with GRUB bootloader forgetting that Windows was installed. Fedora never had that issue but Ubuntu and it’s flavours were mean n rude on me.

Pen support is really good but Linux treats it as a mouse. That said, booting up Krita and drawing is a pretty good experience. Not as flawless as on Windows but very similar.

Fedora installation worked pretty flawlessly with a dualboot into Windows so I’d recommend that if you still want to keep Windows.

[–] Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nobara, a Fedora-based distro, has the Surface patches in its kernel, iirc. Said kernel also has an AUR package.

[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Very cool! I’ll have to check this out.

[–] SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sweeeeet! Yeah, I've found a good deal on a pro 4, just negotiating with the seller.
Thanks for your input my dude!

[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

I'll be making a post in a week or so to talk about my experience with it.

Also, pierogi fucking rock.