Edit: I'll try my luck with Kubuntu and see how things go. Wish me luck :D
So I have been happily using my Surface Go 2 for a couple years now and don't really have a lot of complaints right now. However, Microsoft being Microsoft and Windows being Windows, I'd like to move to a Linux distro because foss is just cooler and Linux is cooler lol.
I'm mainly using my Surface for school: taking hand-written notes in Journal, annotating and highlighting text in PDFs with Drawboard, and browsing the web. Very basic stuff. Not gaming, not really a power user either, so I don't need any fancy distro that allows me to go under the hood and tinker.
Before moving, I've got a couple of things I'd like to ask:
-
Which distro should I choose? Something similar to Windows wouldn't hurt but doesn't have to be necessarily. I've previously installed and used (K)ubuntu on an old laptop of mine and it worked fine. I've heard that Mint is more or less one of the best choices for transitioning since it "just works" and has pretty much anything you could want right off the bat - settings and drivers and such. Is Mint fine for a Surface Go 2? I can add my specs if needed.
-
Do you have recommendations for a notes taking app and a PDF reader that allows for editing, annotating, highlighting text? I've had a thorough chat with GPT (don't judge) and have been recommend Xournal++ which is apparently also available on Linux. I've played around with it a little and it seems fine, but I'd also take recommendations from the community if you have any.
-
Would I be fine running Linux off an SD card that I have inserted in my device? The interal storage of the Surface is quite limited with 120GB, so it has an SD card slot to expand its storage; my SD card has another 120GB on it. I've mostly been fine just using the internal storage, but it's slowly running out, so I will likely have to use the SD card at some point. Should I make the effort of moving all my data - like documents, photos and stuff - to the SD card and install Linux onto the internal storage itself alongside Windows, or would I also be fine installing Linux onto the SD card? Apparently, this is not ideal because of slower read and write speeds compared to the built-in SSD (?) storage; moving all the data is not too much fun either, however.
-
Is stylus/Surface Pen support a thing on Linux? And will the Surface keyboard work fine too? I imagine yes, but I don't know for sure. That would be a must for whatever distro I choose since it's the primary way of taking notes and typing for me.
That should be it, I think. Anything else that might be interesting for me or important to know?
1. Distro choice
I would recommend you either Aurora or Bluefin.
Both are pretty much the same, but differ in their desktop environment.
Traditionally, Gnome (Bluefin) always has been the champion in terms of being tablet-like, but from what I've heard, KDE has surpassed Gnome in terms of how well it works as a tablet UI.
You can install the one or the other, and then later "rebase" to the other variant without needing to reinstall anything if you want to try the "competitor" or if you're unhappy.
This basically switches out the base system, but your installed apps and pictures are decoupled and kept. Like just doing a big update :D
Why do I recommend you exactly that, and not just base Fedora or Kubuntu or whatever?
Simple - you need to install the
linux-surfacekernel (and stuff), because without it, nothing will work, no stylus, no sleep, no battery, basically nothing.But said modified kernel is nothing ordinary, and might shit itself randomly.
Not only would you have to install everything by hand, which was a task that not only let me return to Windows once, but twice as Linux noob! It also causes a lot of headache when you have to spend your evening fixing it via CLI or whatever.
Here uBlue comes handy: you can "fix" your system with just one click.
You don't even have to do manual updates or whatever, everything is done in the background for you, just like on your smartphone.
You have to select the "I have a Surface device" option, and then everything comes pre-bundled and (hopefully) just werks™
2. Note taking and PDFs
I don't know 🤷
3. SD card
🤷
4. Stylus
I believe KDE is better, because it has many wacom tablet input settings and features, but I sold that crappy Surface ages ago when Gnome was the obvious choice. The 🤷 also applies here I guess, because it was two years ago and felt like a completely different age compared to today.
According to the github page I've linked to, I shouldn't need to install linux-kernel. Which Surface were you trying to install Linux onto? Thanks for the help :)