Linux for Microsoft Surface devices. It is reality!
I would like to share with you a very cool project that develops drivers for correct operation of Microsoft Surface devices on Linux. I myself use Surface Pro 6 with these drivers and everything works like a charm (battery life is good, cameras work, stylus, keyboard, touchscreen, screen). The developers are gods. From myself, I would recommend using Fedora Linux distribution, as I got the best battery life on it and didn't experience any additional bugs. If you don't like GNOME, you can try spins.
Yeah it works- and has for quite a while. My SP3 ran Ubuntu fine back in the day, but it didn't save it from being an unservice-able piece of shit with failing hardware that overheated in 5 seconds flat.
I'm somehow really surprised by the linux community embracing the surface. It's a horrible piece of hardware. It's designed to be short lived. Hard to repair or upgrade. Limited connectivity. Etc. I've had user come back with their surface where the battery had pushed the screen out.
It's the best "laptop" I've ever owned. Overly expensive, but it's legitimately the first laptop I've had that hasn't died in a few years. It feels like Microsoft's response to the Mac-book.
It's exceptionally bad if one wishes to repair or upgrade, as you stated. Outside of that though - performance, reliability... it's been pretty good.
As I typed this I remembered that in the past year it's started hard locking seemingly at random requiring a full shutdown via holding the power button. So, not quite as consistent as a Mac-book.
I've supported over the last few years surface pro 4 and hp X2 G4. They are nightmarish devices. The surface pro had constant freeze issues where people had to force restart them, then after two years, the battery wouldn't last, but we couldn't change it, because I believe the screen was glued. We had also keyboard and touchpad issues.
Now the X2, same kind of system as the surface, but we have issues where machines become really, really hot. So hot that some have their heat sink burning the displays. We have issue where dust gets in between the display and webcam. Last but not least, your keyboard will die after two year of use, the small connector gets damaged bye folding the keyboard overtime. Making the machine unusable, overtime. Machines that are out of warranty can't have their keyboard replaced and new keyboard cost a fortune.
Now, if you take any professional grade laptop. Like a Lenovo T or some HP Elite book. You could keep machine in rotation for years after the warranty was over, we had 10+ years old laptop being used as loaner or for short assignments. Because we could upgrade the RAM, HDD->SSD, battery etc. Also don't get me started on the connector, a surface had 1 USB A one mini DP and a proprietary connector. The x2 3 usb-c port.
The surface are very expensive for what they offer.
IMO, hardware should be very important for the linux community, it must be as important as software!
I'm a huge Linux shill, but man I love the surface pro. It's just such a sexy device lmao. I'll mainly run Windows on it, because I at least need one Windows device for my work.
The surface pro 9 has and easily replaceable battery which is a huge draw for me.
I am a road warrior, a linux admin and a salesman. I have my SP9 ARM and while ARM on Windows has been a disappointment, the hardware is top notch and does everything I need.
Plus I work in very dirty environments, so it is nice to be able to buy a new keyboard when needed
There are hundreds of better alternatives, to a MS surface. For linux enthusiasts, hardware should be very important, as important as the software, OS your running.
It's actually pretty funny. Back around 2018 I bought an XPS13, being hailed as the golden standard of linux support on a laptop, and my buddy bought a Surface Pro (3 or 4, cant remember). With these patches, his machine not only ran better, but also had 4x the battery life, compared to my fully supported (on paper) machine
I've had nothing but issues with Microsoft hardware... Even excluding Xbox stuff, my SP4 had major issues with video corruption and hard freezes. Multiple RMA attempts came back defective or damaged, even the first party folio keyboard went bad. These were widespread defects and once warranty was up I was sol.
The only thing that somewhat extended its life before it went full spicy pillow was putting Linux Mint on it with some kernel patches.
Thank God this community exists, but I'll never buy another surface product as long as I live.
I'm currently running EndeavorOS on my Surface Laptop 4. I'll admit it was a pain to get working right, especially since I have the amd model, but damn once it's working its so nice.
I guess I’m missing something, but I don’t understand buying a MS hardware product and then installing Linux, surely just buy a different product in the first place?
Same with people buying Google Pixel’s and then removing the stock Android. Isn’t the Pixel’s hardware rubbish, and the only reason to buy it the software?
I’m pro Linux, just not seeing the point of giving money to these companies and then installing Linux… I think some people do it with the Pixel as a protest, which makes little sense when they’ve given money to the company :/
Jup. Surface Pro: Very lightweight, solid, powerful (for its size), fan-less (some models), both tablet and laptop, has an okay stylus. Whats not to like? Oh, right, the default OS. 😊
Fair enough, I just thought there would be more practical options for price/performance/usability, but I guess touchscreen laptops are a bit of a niche still.
In the case of the Surface Go family, there isn't really anything comparable from other companies. It's unironically the best compact tablet I'm aware of that you can put Linux on, and it runs Pop!_OS without issue once you disable Secure Boot. The only better Linux tablet for me would be an iPad Mini, but you can't put Linux on one of those and even if you could it's ARM-based so most proprietary apps won't work on it.
In general, your tablet options for something smaller and handier than full-size 2-in-1s are pretty limited if you don't want to be running iPadOS, so excluding Microsoft's devices from the running if you want to put Linux on your tablet is pointless. Yeah, buying a Surface Laptop to put Linux on there is a bit weird, but I can see the Surface Pro family yielding a good ARM Linux tablet some day.
Same with people buying Google Pixel’s and then removing the stock Android. Isn’t the Pixel’s hardware rubbish, and the only reason to buy it the software?
Because Pixel allows the removal of stock android where some phones, like Samsung's, actively prevent it.
But you're not entirely wrong. There are non-Pixel phones with better hardware and unlockable bootloaders. Often it's a preference thing. Though it should be said, the more popular the phone, the more likely it has robust support from the custom rom community, and Pixels are popular.
Also, "stock Android" doesn't mean "everything is accessible and configurable" Android. They may put a Pixel-based rom right back on, just a version that's not so restrictive. Many don't need a reason to use custom roms beyond just having more knobs and levers for their phone than stock allows them.
Honestly, one of the major reasons I use Lineage, beyond the big obvious reasons, is solely to keep the "Hold back button to kill foreground app" function that stock android removed long ago.
Buying new, sure, what you're saying makes sense. I think buying used for the form factor or whatever and not wanting windows is a fine choice, though.
That pixel's example is so funny cause its suprisingly the most open boooader out there, so almost no devices but the pixel are used for full custom OS' like grapheneOS.
But to answer your question, a lot of the beauty of Linux is it runs on anything, so if you already had one lying around, you could just slab Debian or something on it and it'll be snappier than ever.
I also personally like the form factor of the device and the removable keyboard
I wouldn't say the Pixel line's hardware is rubbish, more that Google is focused on having a polished "it just works" experience rather than trying to differentiate themselves by having the fastest, biggest, newest hardware in the Android market.
The mobile market hit the "diminishing returns" point quite a while ago and for a lot of people - probably the majority - the only reasons to upgrade are security updates ending, or because a non-replaceable battery is getting to the end of its life.
I used to upgrade every 12-18 months religiously, but now my Pixel 5 is coming up on 3 years old and I'd happily keep it another few years with a battery replacement, if the updates weren't going to end shortly.
I agree that buying a new Surface to install Linux on doesn't seem like the way to go.
But I get new life out of older machines by upgrading them with Linux. I've gotten additional years of solid use out of some older MacBook Airs by installing Linux. Now that I know there are drivers, I've got my eye on upgrading an old Surface Pro that I have.
Its honestly very usable. Touch has some weirdness and I haven't gotten it working on my device but its one of the laptops not the tablets so I don't really care for touch. Look through the Table of Supported Features that OP linked to make sure whatever device you plan to pick up supports everything or is at least being worked on.
My Surface Book 2 is quite long in the tooth at this point, windows drags on it but I imagine linux would fly. I'm surprised to see such extensive support for it.
It's all fun and giggles until you try to use the cameras. Most recent models are not only incompatible, but unlikely to be compatible anytime soon. SP7 owner using KDE Neon for years.
Theres some long convoluted explanation where cameras these days are not just a sensor, but a whole tiny ICC computer handing all the image processing, with little to no documentation. The effort required to make these work is very high, and i believe there's like a single guy working on these.
Howdy! Just wanted to share that drivers for Surface devices (at least my Surface Laptop and a family member’s Pro) are now in the newer Linux kernel versions and you should only need this if you’re using an older kernel version. That being said, Linux Surface might add some nice improvements.
I have Fedora on a refurb Surface 3 (not pro). It is okay, but I run into issues with chromium browsers freezing it. Still tweaking power settings, i heard it’s related to that. Might try Nobara since I hadn’t heard of it, probably has better defaults.
If I ever have to ditch my iphone for a different device OS, I'll definitely play around with the Linux distros made for phones. Like, lineageOS looks so cool!
I've got an old Surface Go I still use when travelling. I only ever really use it for watching videos, streaming from emby and the like. Occasionally I plug in a USB-C hub to plug it into a TV. Would this work well for that? I can see the surface go is listed as supported and it looks pretty feature complete, if it can make it run a bit faster and not give me any grief, I might give it a go.