A family member gave me an old convertible Chromebook, which I (of course) installed Linux on for the fun of it. It has convinced me there’s a place in my life for a Linux tablet, though it’s not quite the right device for me.
The Surface Go 2 seems about right with less size and more memory than the Chromebook, but I figured I should ask if people like anything else. Here are some preferences:
- 500-600g weight seems about right; the Chromebook is 1100g and that’s a bit much
- 10" or so, 3:2 or 4:3, nothing more oblong
- Pressure-sensitive stylus support
- Expandable storage - an SSD I can swap without a heat gun is ideal, but an SD card slot will do
- Headphone jack
- x86-64, not ARM
- 8gb RAM
- $100ish for used B-grade
Get something else. Surface machines have issues with firmware because of their proprietary drivers.
Get something for free, or elect to buy something used that you know doesn’t have these issues.
Do you have something concrete to recommend?
The recommendation I’ve seen for Surface products is to update everything under Windows before installing Linux. That’s probably sufficient for firmware updates on a five year old tablet as I don’t expect there will be many new ones in the future. I’m not going to be a free software purist here, especially buying used.
That’s probably sufficient for firmware updates on a five year old tablet as I don’t expect there will be many new ones in the future.
That’s what I did with one of mine. It worked fine for me, until I replaced that laptop.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to choose a Surface again, but I had a good experience, after being very careful with my install and upgrade process.
If I recall correctly, Bluefin has surface specific builds that address these issues
For $100 nothing that I’m familiar with that would be better. Like maybe some second hand Chuwi PC tablet is good but I’ve never tried them. I got a used Dell 7320 detachable PC tablet 3 ago and the prices are a bit down compared to 3 years ago. What I got for ~$400 is like ~$250-300 now
if ur looking at used tablets in that price range, check out the dell venue pro 11 - they can be found for ~$120 and have decent linux support, just make sure to bring a portable power source since the battery life on old tablets is usually terrible (check gearscouts.com/power-stations for some good options that won’t break the bank).
I’ve been running surface go 3 and I really want to switch… I’d recommend something not so locked down.
Looking at this install guide, it doesn’t seem like the devices are locked down; instead, they appear to be very PC-like. Secureboot is on by default, but Linux can work with it, or it can be disabled.
Some of the hardware is not well-supported in the mainline Linux kernel, but there are patches. What locks haven’t I spotted?
It’s not too hard to install, the problems are the maintenance. There are firmwares that either need to be installed through windows, or by using a sketchy script. Also, when you get bugs, it’s rare to find someone with the same bugs or solutions for that bug. For example, I literally can’t switch OS for some reason. If I try to use another image or launch from a usb stick, it literally just bricks.
Also, I have issues when shutting down the computer, sometimes it doesn’t switch off fully and drains the entire battery in an hour. I usually find this out when it’s burning hot in a bag after I’ve switched it off. I’ve had to write a script that reboots the computer and shuts it down immediately as soon as it start to mitigate the shutdown bug.
Look, you might not have any issues, but I’ve had enough issues that I’m really regretting buying one :/
Thanks for the experience. I think I’d favor a different device if something with better support could be had for similar money, but it looks like the used market is flooded with these things and depreciation hit them hard.
