Installing Ubuntu... on an old Surface Pro?

[@MichaelAStanhope]

This is actually really cool. As Win10 gets to EOL, these devices will become dirt cheap and now there is an alternative to keeping them going since a 7th gen i5 really isn't that terrible to deal with!

[@thecomputergeek101old]

Mine is an 7th gen i3, which I am planning on upgrading to a 7th gen i7, which is the best upgrade for it. Replacing the motherboard, yay.

[@rmcdudmk212]

If it keeps them useful and out of a landfill that's a good thing for everyone. 👍

[@a_googIeuser]

19 HOURS AGO WTF

[@maciejstachowski183]

You can actually install Windows 11 on those just fine, if you disable the checks in the installer. You even get updates except for the yearly major ones. I have an i7 version of this Surface - performance is still pretty great for typical use, though the fans tend to run quite hard.

[@LovelyAlanna]

@@thecomputergeek101old how? the processor is soldered in every device after 4th gen

[@stefanzeiger2789]

Surface Connect is not just a power conector like MagSafe. It also connects to a Surface dock that provides video, audio, network and USB.

[@pcefulpolarbear]

dude was talking out his ass

[@anthonym2651]

Much as I enjoy Sean's content, his Apple was showing here.

[@nairac212]

Try Ubuntu unity

[@StormTrooper7772]

@@pcefulpolarbear LMAO

[@Blue5wirl]

Can confirm Ubuntu is great on Surfaces. Windows 11 ran like a dog, but my Go 2 was saved from the scrap heap by Ubuntu 22.04. It’s now my work machine.

[@JonThysell]

How is touch-only in the Go 2? I love the hardware but it's painful to use Windows without a keyboard. EDIT: I was on Win11 but took the plunge and installed Ubuntu 24.10. It was a PITA to install (I spent too long trying to get TPM-backed full disk encryption working, also you MUST install in safe mode or the installer will crash during file copy and leave you with a messed up partial install). Ultimately I didn't like it. Touch was okay but weird like needing two finger hold to select items in combo boxes that didn't always work. Also apps really didn't like screen rotation, making it especially hard to view PDFs as the viewer refused to acknowledge the correct fullscreen resolution. Also the fractional DPI settings which work fine in Windows made some apps look awful. Finally, and this should have been onbvious: you need a keyboard even more in Linux than in Windows. I reset back to Windows 10 and I'm happier than I was with Win 11 or Ubuntu. Neither are great as touch-only, or touch-first, but Gnome at least needs more work. I'd put Ubuntu on a laptop with touch as a bonus, but not on a tablet.

[@enricolimcaco]

Also have a go 2 and interested to hear someone trying this

[@FlameSoulis]

Not a Surface, but a Dell 'Surface Pro-like' (5290) and I've been using Mint, so Ubuntu 22.04 Cinnamon Edition. Can also confirm Ubuntu's core works great!

[@Wigwamo]

​@@FlameSoulisI've gor that one, do you know if it still has pen support with ubuntu

[@rastamouse7861]

I wish there were better options for the OG RT. Last I saw, they barely had raspberry pi OS running on it and it wasn't that great.

[@ENNEN420]

My dad was getting tired of Windows. His Surface Pro 7 updated from Win 10 to Win 11 without his consent. It added cryptolocker without his consent. It added so much that's just absolutely useless and bogs down performance without his consent. After a while, I finally grabbed his Surface Pro 7 and installed Ubuntu on it and he doesn't wanna go back to Windows now. My nearly 70 year old father who knows nothing about tech is now a Linux user and thriving with it.

[@fromfin90]

a mainstream linux is not hard, just like any operatingsystem it takes some time getting used to it

[@ArchLars]

Yeah, usually older people have no problems with Linux. It's younger people who need online multiplayer, proprietary software Linux can't use etc that do. This is not shocking. Older people tend to only use their computer for word processing, email, browsing the internet/reading news and watching videos on KZbin and Facebook. Linux can do all of those things just fine. I am not dogging on Linux here, I am young and an arch user (btw), but acting delusional about the capability of Linux for usage cases that it just can't do is one of my pet peeves about our community.

[@kyle207]

Yep I got my dad an old dell pc from my school district for $25 on gov deals that already had Ubuntu installed. All he wanted to do was learn to type and do online stuff. He is 60 and it works perfectly and I don’t really have to help him with it too much.

[@orangeyellow-me1pz]

​@@ArchLarsby younger people do you mean gamers?

[@playtowingamingnetwork]

I'd say I kinda disagree with you I'm a advanced Linux user and ill say there's always a way for example using wine or bottles

[@joj.]

There are a few good-to-knows I must point out as a Surface Pro owner for people looking to buy. 1. Almost all SPs released before the 8 have soldered SSDs which at some point will die and cannot be easily replaced. 2. All i3 and i5 SPs have no active cooling system - they just sink heat to the chassis, so they will run quite hot if pushed, and always if charging while in use. 3. SP 6 and earlier don't have a USB-C port (which can be used for charging), so require the power connector shown. Make sure you can acquire one. 7 and up support USB-C PD so it's not really needed.

[@fixups6536]

You can actually upgrade the SSD in the Surface Pro 3 and 4. They are standard M.2 SSD, but you have to find one that has the correct length (they are the short ones). I originally wanted to purchase a Surface Pro 4 for this reason. It turns out I don't actually need to upgrade the SSD in my Pro 5 and Go 2, because I have organized my work data differently, and I can also take advantage of the microSD slot. The RAM, however, is soldered, so it's not advisable nowadays to purchase a Surface that has less than 8GB of RAM.

[@DaveAdams222]

Okay, you got me with this one. Most of these sorts of "install on old hardware" videos I watch and think "that's pretty neat". This is the first one I've watched that actually has inspired me to purchase some old(er) tech and revive it.

[@xxHANNONxx]

I ran into an old Lenovo Yoga 2 laptop/foldy tablet thingy, for almost nothing, and was inspired. An ssd upgrade and ubuntu install later, it's become quite a useful gizmo. It rides passenger, with music, videos and podcasts while I veg out on my Xbox, but unlike my actual tablet or phone, it's easy to back stuff up, flash drives, or whatever else. I wasn't planning on it, but it's sort of replaced my PC and tablet, as it's sitting there booted and handy.

[@brianfield4170]

Did you manage to get the touch screen keyboard to popup as it should? I also installed Ubuntu on a Lenovo Yoga, and while most things work, the on-screen keyboard does not, and noone seems to have a solution for it...

[@xxHANNONxx]

@ unfortunately I didn’t get the pop up keyboard working, the best I could do was use the screen keyboard within the accessibility features, but it’s not great. I don’t really use it, so it never bothered me, but it’s definitely an issue if it’s something you need. Given what I have into it, and how much I use it, it’s wonderful, but it’s not perfect.

[@brianfield4170]

@@xxHANNONxx Thanks for the reply. Yea, I did the same thing with the accessibility feature and can activate it manually. Interestingly enough, whether this "just works" or if its something that I installed that I don't remember, the popup keyboard works as it should with core gnome apps under wayland. So, firefox, it works, chrome, it doesn't and I have to use the accessibility switch. It would be nice if this could be figured out...

[@dj-no]

@@brianfield4170 if youre running gnome you can just swipe up from the bottom and the keyboard will appear no matter what

[@tato-chip7612]

A few recommendations: 1. If you are using a popular distribution like ubuntu/fedora/debian/various others then do not turn off secure boot, set it to "Microsoft & 3rd Party CA" 2. TPM is absolutely recommended

[@ChristianArnold5107]

Is there much use for TPM on Linux? Not hating, just curious

[@tato-chip7612]

@@ChristianArnold5107 GPG, Chromium, Firefox and i believe Thunderbird use it. At least those are the common tools. There is also an extension of SSH that adds supports to it. Plus i believe the built in system keyring managers(gnome keyring/KDE wallet) also use it. probably other things too. It's also very good to combine it with secureboot.

[@aviat4ion]

Does Secure Boot really matter?

[@ChristianArnold5107]

@aviat4ion I would say probably not. But it probably would get rid of that red bar with the unlocked icon at the top of the screen

[@bigl9527]

​@@ChristianArnold5107some say it's to lock you to Windows, but in the server world where many people are trying to bust in your server and plan some malicious programs. It might help, although I haven't seen it yet (maybe because TPM is working?). Distros I know supports TPM is Ubuntu 20.04, Proxmox, RHEL, and Alma Linux

[@AdmV0rl0n]

Just so you know, the power connector, is indeed a power connector. But MS have a dock that plugs in, so that connector is another USB3 - albeit not in standard form. On Ali express you can find adapters that allow it to be used as a port, or you can still get the MS dock thing.

[@jlj945]

I put fedora on my Surface Pro 2 a few years ago. It was awesome. I used it like everyday until I bought my iPad. I didn’t have to make any modifications to it. Everything worked right out of the box. Touchscreen, removable keyboard, and rotation. The main reason I bought an iPad was because the touch screen was intermittently going out. And the iPad was on sale at the time.

[@gmitchell_tc]

I have an HP Elite X2 with the same gen CPU. I bought it discounted as sorta new-old-stock from HP. When Microsoft announced the requirements that would exclude my computer from W11, my machine was *still under warranty*. Thankfully Ubuntu works nicely on it.

[@alexandreb.1101]

What pissed me off was the way they exempted only the 7th gens inside the surface studio, because they were still selling those with stupidly outdated hardware

[@XeonProductions]

Wow, I think this was the smoothest Linux experience I've seen you have on this channel. Usually something goes horribly wrong on custom hardware.

[@HexZero]

right? this is so satisfying to look at

[@hiverampiveram]

This is incredible timing. I just dug out my old Surface Pro 5 *yesterday* and turned it into a smart picture frame running Ubuntu with some Minecraft servers in the background 🤪

[@Deli0Man]

😁🤘

[@RagingInsomniac]

thats like literally a server tbh, its how most smart fridges run. samsung could use some new engineers for their smart fridges.

[@T.Ross.]

0:23 A wise man once said “ow…”

[@SenileOtaku]

I just wonder how many takes it took to get it to do that...

[@12655rsohne]

I happened to catch your video last night and was just retiring my Surface Pro 3. I just finished installing Ubuntu and the Surface Pro update and have to say what a great find! Nothing short of Unbelievable! Thanks

[@fixups6536]

Sean, thank you for posting this video. It inspired me to purchase a refurbished Surface to install my remastered Ubuntu 20.04 MATE on it, and it works very well. I'm actually now using the exact same OS on my desktops and on this Surface (the ISO image I installed on the Surface was created by cloning the OS that's installed on my main desktop). I didn't even have to install the linux-surface kernel. I don't use the touchscreen at all (I have disabled it, as it's pretty much unusable unless you have a distro entirely dedicated to it, and then it's as lame as an iPad), and I use it as a lightweight laptop computer with a Bluetooth keyboard/touchpad combo. BTW, it's a Surface Pro 5, the same one you use in your video, but that's an accident. In fact, I originally ordered a refurbished Surface Pro 4, with the idea of replacing it's internal SSD by a beefier one some day, but it got lost in transit somewhere. I got my money back and ordered the Pro 5, which happened to be very cheap that day. After this first victory, I also bought a refurbished Surface Go 2, and installed the exact same OS on it. This time I had to also install the linux-surface kernel for everything to work (especially shutdown, reboot and suspend). The Surface Go 2 is currently the smallest and lightest Linux computer I own, and it follows me everywhere. Because it was so cheap (180€, which would probably be less than $150 in the USA), I'm not afraid of losing it, breaking it, or someone stealing it. It's fully encrypted and synchronized with my other computers thanks to Resilio Sync: whatever happens, I won't lose any data. I'm so glad Microsoft is making its old products obsolete so quickly! The prices of Surface products are going down so fast that it's worth waiting a while. Maybe I'll upgrade to a Go 3 or 4 next year, who knows... :)

[@Antonis24]

I bought a used Surface Pro 7 for €250 on Ebay a few days ago. Can't wait to install Linux on it and tinker with it.

[@beoxsgaming9388]

Nice. I had trouble getting Ubuntu 22.04 LTS on my old SurfaceBook 2.I'm sure I was just missing a step or something, but glad you got yours to work.

[@FuzeFyreGreenFerret]

This is perfect timing! I just sold my Surface Pro 6 to a friend and they wanted to install Ubuntu, then your video uploaded a couple days ago!!!! He's even more excited to try Ubuntu on it since Windows 11 is slower on the surface pro 6

[@bubbled2205]

Great vid, I bought a Surface Pro 6 near launch and I've used it pretty much every day since then, even 6 or 7 years later it still impresses me how capable of a device it is. I think I'll give this a shot, I've been wanting to try out Linux as I've been more and more dissatisfied with recent Windows releases and updates. It's been a good 15 years since I played around with Ubuntu.

[@leedavis6343]

This is actually wonderfully timed, I had *just* retired my SP4 a few weeks ago and I don't want to get rid of it just because the OS won't be able to recieve security updates anymore, that and the battery's gone a little... puffy (there's also some cosmetic damages that I want to get fixed up, but that's minor). And from my experience with that same device, the Surface Pro is an incredibly versatile tablet that's got more computing power than, well, most thing's that I would need a computer for; furthermore it was and still is more, well, for the lack of a better term, tablet, than most tasks that would be more ideal for usage with a tablet or smartphone. Frankly it's more like I was never able to fully utilize what the SP4 had to offer and if it wern't for the battery and the days of Windows 10 being numbered, I wouldn't have thought about retiring it for at least a few more years. Honestly I could almost feel the twinkle in my eyes as I was watching this video!

[@drewzero1]

I had Ubuntu on a Surface Pro 2 for my work computer for a few years after Win 8.1 went out of support. It was almost perfect, and if it was possible to pull the hard drive without risk of total destruction, I'd probably still be using it. I switched to a ThinkPad for easier upgrades and recovery. Sometimes I miss the touchscreen and ease of presenting with the tablet form factor. One thing I remember having trouble with was the automatic sleep when the cover was closed. It would never sleep/wake properly so I turned off the sensor and just used the power button to wake and sleep.

[@AddieDirectsTV]

I miss my surface pro 6. I had it running Mint. Stupid thing stopped charging. And it wasn’t the charger, I bought a new one lol. I may have to buy a new one lol. They’re so handy. I love them. Especially with Linux.

[@edwardfletcher7790]

See if you can find one with a broken screen and swap your good screen in. If you have the skills that is...

[@AddieDirectsTV]

@ I sort of do, however, I have access to an engineering shop and engineers who can walk me through it lll.

[@edwardfletcher7790]

@@AddieDirectsTV Make sure it's the EXACT same model 👍 Ifixit will have a dismantle guide. That should save you a lot of money !

[@Luke357]

Don't buy another with a busted screen. The battery is probably the only issue you have with yours. Just buy a battery as another device will have a battery that is just as worn down as your last.

[@drewzero1]

My Surface Pro 2 stopped charging and it turned out to be a very small chunk of metal stuck to the magnet. Too small to see looking into it, but big enough to stop it from connecting.

[@myawen_]

Good timing! I just setup Ubuntu on my Surface (non pro) 3 a couple days ago. :D

[@hasansheriff4310]

I got an SP5 with a smashed screen and spicy battery. I removed both and have that running as a node in my Proxmox cluster. Another SP with 4GB RAM is running Debian and is my dedicated Klipper server. Mega bonus that I can run KlipperScreen on the touch display, too!

[@leedavis6343]

I feel you on that danger pillow and damaged screen.

[@wasserruebenvergilbungsvirus]

I fear the day my SP6 gets a spicy battery, I really like it 😭

[@kiran6097]

This is pretty cool! I just tried fedora on a surface pro 2 (4 gb RAM, 256 GB storage), it worked pretty well - screen rotation, mouse pad, sound, touch worked but brightness didn't for some reason and battery drained pretty quick. I ended up installing windows 10 home then, that worked better, and is snappy, and the battery lasted 2-3 hours with moderate use.

[@cameronbosch1213]

3:59 Wait, you have to turn off the TPM for Linux installations? I thought you only needed to get rid off Secure Boot!

[@mzs112000]

Often yes. You can usually turn TPM back on after Linux install though

[@cameronbosch1213]

@mzs112000 Really? I didn't do so on my Framework Laptop 16 with Linux (though I still have Secure Boot disabled because signing my own kernel on Arch Linux is something I'm not willing to deal with).

[@CathrineMacNiel]

and you only need to disable secure boot until you import the kernel signatures into the UEFI, after that you can enjoy SB even with linux.

[@Jackpkmn]

@@cameronbosch1213 The problem comes from these old Secure Boot versions not having the new keys for modern Linunx. Basically anything older than 2015 it's difficult to update the key store. And because of the outdated key store Secure Boot isn't that secure anymore anyway.

[@nikitf7777]

I think you don't even need to disable secure boot because Ubuntu supports it out of the box

[@camerontinker1948]

I love running EndeavourOS (Arch based) on my SP5! The Linux Surface project supports most of the older devices so this is a great way to give them new life!

[@sillysimon7889]

On some devices (like this one), you can actually leave secure boot on the "Microsoft and 3rd party CA" option (Ubuntu is signed with a 3rd party CA)

[@joshuaconsiglio6136]

I did exactly this to my Surface. They're great machines and make wonderful media devices, and can be very affordable.

[@kirishima638]

I love that you’re browsing Macintosh Garden, on Ubuntu, on a Microsoft Surface 😊

[@aytviewer2421]

I had a work Surface Pro in 2016. It got a whopping 30-45 minutes of battery life. I made them take it back and give me a Lenovo Think(book?) and it was way better with about 4-5 hours of battery life. Yeah, that doesn't sound like much today --but back then that was great battery life.

[@fusion3362]

I did this with my Surface Pro 4 with a Fedora Workstation install. I ran into the same problem with Bitlocker. What I did instead was wiped the hard drive in the command line before the install. Once I did that, it installed very nicely! Great vid!!!

[@infinitytec]

9:20 BSG reference?

[@ENT_PRESTIGIOUS]

At 4:50, I was gonna say that was so cursed and weird and then i found out that you wrote "Cursed boot screen" LOL nice

[@ChepMurdoc]

That surface went from pretty to absolute gorgeous. Having a linux-based tablet is a dream come true. I hope you can replace the batery and review once again and share your updates.

[@a.lawrence4969]

I love how excited you were.

[@GottZ]

that feel when watching this on a surface go running arch with kde and using maliit as on screen keyboard and iio-sensor-proxy for screen rotation as well as tuned for power profiles. linux on tablets is here already. it's just not ez to setup yet.

[@metalosmrmmgtow916]

Thank you for this! I love my old Surface Pro 5 but hate windows. I tried Linux on it before but lost to much function to be worth it. Now I can keep it from going to the island of obsolescent tech, thanks to you.

[@LordKaladar]

I put Kubuntu on my sp3, but it was not doing touch or rotate. This was a greet find! Can't wait to see how involved the battery replacement is. Mine likely will need one before too long.

[@ffwast]

Practically everything is soldered down behind the screen, which is glued down.

[@AnonyDave]

I've been using second hand surface pros as my travel devices for a few years now. Just went from surfacegate pro 4 (the screen was showing signs of dying) to a 7+. They're just great little things for that

[@GeFeldz]

4:50 that's like something out of a bad dream!

[@C4103]

I went down this particular rabbit hole recently with my Surface Pro 4. I tried surface-linux with both Debian and Fedora. It worked better on Fedora but still left a lot to be desired, particularly in the touch screen keyboard department. The Linux based one is basically unusable. It doesn't properly come up when clicking some text inputs, and manually bringing it up is a pain. What I ended up doing is using the Brunch framework. Brunch is a bootloader that allows you to boot ChromeOS on a lot of devices that would not normally be supported. It basically works like an Android tablet now, and is the best 3rd party OS I've used on it.

[@memediatek]

Actually thats not Ubuntu Touch....

[@MustacheDuctTape]

Loooove my surface 2 for archival video capture, pairs great with my set up and is light enough that I can rest it on top of my devices and not worry about damaging the machines below it. Glad to see I can just jump over to regular ole ubuntu when the time is right for any upgrades.

[@alexsmirnof]

Just installed Fedora 41 KDE on a Windows tablet from 2016. Touchscreen works out of the box, but autorotation doesn't. Anyway, I'm happy. It's an Atom with 2 Gigs of RAM (nowhere near Surface), and it lives again! Fedora runs surprisingly smooth on such a low-spec hardware.

[@MMAallday67]

I have Surface Pros 1 & 2 & was starting to ship for a 6 or higher when I saw this. Thanks!!!!

[@carter-the-coder]

I wonder if Phosh, a DE for mobile devices (mostly phones), would work on a surface.

[@burts06]

I installed Ubuntu 22.04 on a similar Asus device and it works great! It's my daily tablet that I use for all kinds of stuff! I love it! :)

[@ozguncivelekoglu6060]

I have done a similar thing for my Surface Pro 3 back in the day when it was chugging hard on Windows. Everything worked out remarkably well including the gestures out of the box with Fedora. Gnome is actually great for touchscreens.

[@RudysRetroIntel]

Very cool!! I've had Ubuntu on the 1st Surface. It's great!! Looking forward to seeing you replace that battery!

[@LabCat]

Adama sighting! Such a pretty Bengal kitteh. I've wanted a Surface for presenting at work, may be time to pick one up 🙂

[@SantiagoSalse]

Thank u so much. I needed this video. I'm currently looking for a 11inch MacBook Air or a small surface Pro for a portable small Linux machine, and this project that enables all hardware capabilities makes me wanting a surface even more THANK YOUUUU

[@ibnu0muhammad]

awesomeee!!! been waiting for a review for ubuntu on surface pro just subscribed your channel bro!

[@ChrisCebelenski]

I literally just did this with a Surface Pro 5 - Works nice, once I figured it out - and the custom kernel to get the features like touchscreen working. Still need to figure out how to pin that kernel...

[@floboyyt]

Please do a battery test on Windows 10 (or maybe even 11 if there is an bypass to install it on the device) and Ubuntu. I want to put Linux on my Surface Pro 9 to get more battery life but I don't know if that will do anything.

[@Mister5597]

Nice to hear linux is running well on a surface device, I have an Acer Switch 5 running windows 10 and just got notified this week about EOL

[@Prim8avenger1977]

Well that's my new project, hunting for a Surface Pro on e-bay right now 🙂

[@one_step_sideways]

Better to hunt for something else, these things are barely holding on, with various reliability issues and a battery that is guaranteed to be shot. I think it would be better to just look for some chinese Windows tablet with decent specs (12+GB of RAM), until the tariffs start anew.

[@drewzero1]

Personally I've found they're still too expensive on eBay compared to other computers of a similar age and specs, but if you can find a good deal at a business or government auction you can sometimes get them cheaper.

[@37Kilo2]

I still use my Surface 5 in the workshop. Unfortunately, the top ½" of the touchscreen is no longer working, which is right where fullscreen title bars are positioned. I have to keep a Bluetooth mouse on hand, defeating the purpose.

[@cybernit3]

Right on you installed Ubuntu 24.10 on it, extending the life instead of ewaste, like that. I have a Samsung TAB A8, but it is better just to stick to Android 10 (can't upgrade further) cause it only has 2 GB Ram, 32 GB internal storage, and microSD 256 GB. With it I can use for basic stuff, but in a browser it runs youtube so slow, not sure why? But with the youtube app it runs youtube a lot better!! I wonder if I can find a cheap Surface Pro; thanks for the tip wasn't aware of them. But wish you had some stats comparing Win10 vs Ubuntu; like fps performance, battery life, etc... Thanks...

[@HardbassTV.]

8:15 how did he put shortcut on the screen?

[@swatmann7541]

On some surface models the touch screen doesn't work out of the box in WINDOWS.

[@svendeeson6818]

Are there any detailed instructions for a non techie senior citizen with a Surface pro 3?

[@rufixorg]

Got Surface Pro 5 couple weeks ago as a gift. Ordered new battery and few bits. Planning to install Linux as well but want Windows 10 as well for car diagnostics. Will try that. And probably will try to install Linux on micro SD card.

[@hanimansour5454]

Thanks,but what about the camera and other device functionality ?

[@cameronbosch1213]

I have a Minisforum V3 tablet. The only problem I have with it on Arch Linux is the volume is either at 100: or muted completely; there's no in between for the sound. That's a moderately annoying issue. The other issue is hardware. I like that it has an AMD Ryzen 8840U CPU with integrated AMD Radeon 780M graphics compared to what are basically useless Intel iGPUs or incompatible with Linux (for now) Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoCs, which also cannot run some x86-64 applications I use that aren't FOSS, which are basically on pretty much every other tablet. The problem I'm referring to is that it does have an M.2 2280 SSD, but it's 1 TB with no way to access it without disassembling the screen. The Surface Pro 8 was my second choice, however, I couldn't find one with 32 GB of RAM, so the Minisforum V3 it was!

[@one_step_sideways]

If you want everything to work well, then you need to use Mint. Otherwise, what else would you expect from Arch-based distros? You're re-inventing the bicycle each time you install it on any laptop, and it's not exactly a good use of your free time.

[@cameronbosch1213]

@one_step_sideways I use KDE, so Mint isn't really an option for me.

[@RealGengarTV]

Have you tried changing the sound server?

[@ms7165]

How does scrolling work for you guys.. Running Mint on a Pro5 and you have to be dead center on the scroll bar or you find yourself opening anything you accidently touch.

[@ZacAttack9906]

Need the video on how to change the battery. I'm installing Ubuntu on mine tonight.

[@dtomvan]

8:00 performance is like 3x slower on powersave compared to balanced on most laptops though

[@damiengrief]

This is amazing. I have a Surface Pro that I can't install Windows 11 on. It just missed the cutoff for Windows 11. So coming across this video is actually perfect for me. I had hesitations when I saw the title. I wasn't sure if they keyboard or touch would work well but I'm glad to see they do. I wonder if the Surface Pen works with it, too. It'd be cool to find a Linux app to write and draw in with my existing Surface Pen. Definitely going to give this a try.

[@JamesSmith-sw3nk]

I WISH you had covered how it played KZbin frame rate and resolution and other video playback capability more, that is often a tablet's primary function.

[@Tugennov]

Luv it. I'll be doing this sometime in the coming year.

[@GeFeldz]

7th gen Intel will probably do general computing for a LONG time with a Linux distro! I'm guessing 4k youtube silky smooth isn't a big deal. How much RAM could you get those in? Edit: they came with 4, 8 or 16 GB of ram, 8 is probably fine if you use fewer tabs than i do. 16 should be plenty for quite a while! 4 GB? That IS getting a bit rough in 2024. It's probably fine for general use, especially just as a tablet.

[@XPimKossibleX]

If you wanna use it for KZbin i wonder how well KZbin on TV works 🤔 You get an extension with the same name that messes with things like user agent, then go the url. Its like the youtube app on smart tvs

[@fearbot69]

I rock Fedora on my SPRO3, it is one of the ones that suffer from the bad wifi+bt combo cards. Have to use wifi dongle on the one USB port on the device, but otherwise runs flawlessly. I have another SPRO5 with a shattered front display running Arch operating as a semi-headless miniserver hosting Navidrome, sits in my living room connected to my sound system. Even in death they still have purpose 👍

[@fearbot69]

Also I'm not the one who broke these! I got them extremely cheap because of their issues. They are almost near impossible to open without shattering the display. The cost in labor and parts far outweighs having a repaired system. Only useful to repair for data retrieval if bitlock'd drive on a Surface that DOES NOT have a removable/serviceable NVME.

[@justacat3639]

Are there any touchscreen gestures in Gnome? Does three finger swipe up bring up overview like on a touchpad?

[@tahmidrzishan]

What is a kickstand that you won't kick?

[@karlcx]

i have a chromebook with a touch screen that would be nice if it had gesture support like that. the touch works but no gestures render it pretty useless. no idea how to fix it though!

[@solomongrundysfoot]

...me over here still using the surface pro 3 for home use weekly. 😅

[@leedavis6343]

Nothing wrong with that, if it works in a practical manor and can be used safely/securely by all means keep using it!

[@orangeyellow-me1pz]

I'm using a Dell latitude 5285 with 16 GB of RAM and that very same processor. I'm running Windows 11 pro with no issues. Ubuntu Linux does not work that well because the cameras don't work. I wish they did. I replaced the battery and upgraded to 1tb of storage as well. The screen was meant to be easily replaced so getting inside was easy. No heat gun needed and it came off in about a minute. I wish this machine got as much love as the surface since it was so repair friendly and had a kick stand like the surface.

[@3rgoproxxy]

I can't stop looking at the black spot in the background...

[@JapanPop]

A few weeks back, I made a touch-screen Ubuntu install on an old Inspiron. It’s great!

[@raywt3237]

I did this with my Surface 5 a couple of months ago. Using Linux Mint and I'm really happy with it. Microsoft going from telling me Win 10 was to be the last version to forcing obsolescence... smh. I thought Satya did a good job turning MS around, but their crappy ways have been creeping in again recently

[@ms7165]

so can you login from the virtual keyboard or does the password entry require a physical keyboard?

[@Caverntwo]

I've done exactly that on my Surface Pro 4 last week, but haven't had a nice time with Ubuntu. For whatever reason, it wouldn't load the desktop at all after the login screen sometimes, and as I unfortunately don't have an original Surface typecover (that acts like a USB keyboard using those pins on the bottom), just an aftermarket one connecting via Bluetooth, all I could do in that case was to do a force-shut-down and reboot. I tried installing the latest Fedora instead, that seems to work better, at least so far. I got the Surface for free with a cracked screen and a bloated battery, replacing them is a super tedious and annoying task... Unfortunately, newer Surface models after the Pro 4 (until the Pro 7 IIRC) only have hard-soldered storage, but there is an micro-SD card slot. I was able to upgrade the SSD while I had the screen off on mine to have enough space for dual-boot.

[@dionelr]

I actually have an old Surface Pro 1 lying around. The specs barely run Win10 and I've been wondering what to do with it. Thanks for the ideas.

[@AndrewHelgeCox]

Would you mind testing Xournal++ with annotating PDFs? How is the finger powered zoom and scroll?

[@zerrubabbel]

TBH, I had no idea you needed a special kernel to run Linux on a Surface... I installed Arch on a Surface Go 2, and I've never had any issue with touch screen inputs or automatic screen rotation... Bitlocker though... that was a bit more of a nightmare to deal with

[@Diggy22]

Another distro that is good for touchscreen devices is Debian 12, aka "bookworm". I ran it on my HP Stream 14, and touchscreen worked right out of the box.

[@timothyfender1222]

I have an old Surface Pro 3 just lying around. Will Ubuntu run ok on it?

[@richjamjam]

I have a surface Pro 7 with Chrome OS on it and it's absolutely fantastic.

[@Voxelstice]

9:55 Not as bad as my lifebook with a battery that discharges in 2 minutes 🔥 if you're curious, that lifebook is a P1510 from Fujitsu. it's likely from 2004 judging by the microsoft certificate of authenticity sticker. it ran Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, then it went through Lubuntu, Puppy Linux, and currently Arch Linux 32. Installed the i3 window manager on it and it's been alright. as a matter of fact, i3status reports the battery charge at 1.38% when the battery internally reports its fully charged. i set it to not use the design capacity, but rather last battery charge capacity i probably need to seek out a battery replacement for it, but who knows if there's even any brand new battery packs for this thing, its 20 years old! maybe i'll pull the battery pack open and put in some new battery when im comfortable doing so

[@Pixifly]

I have a Toshiba Satellite T130 and the battery in it has 4% battery health (224 mAh out of 5600 mAh)

[@HIDLad001]

I have always felt that GTK apps and Gnome (much like the Metro UI on Windows) are geared towards touchscreen devices more than keyboard and mouse, so I’m glad to see Gnome and GTK being used with a touchscreen device.

[@_Turbocat777]

I started drawing and digital editing on my Samsung Note 2 but lacked good apps (Sketchbook was the best one at the time -when it was free) then I got a Surface 3 (non pro) for drawing a few years back and it was nice but was def not very powerful. years and years later I had the chance to try other drawing pads and a Lenovo laptop that had a pen but the support and capability wasn't there. about over a year ago I got a Surface Book 2 and it's been amazing. yeah the battery is def degraded and it gets warm but for drawing it's prob the best you can do without going Ipad/Apple pencil route, or separate drawing screen.

[@agizm0]

Good luck. I've broken 2 surface screens, trying to replace the battery. Luckily is was just the glass, not the LCD panel. So I replaced the battery and used clear packing tape around the edge to protect from shards.

[@terraflops]

one of the best episodes. ❤ makes me want to Ubuntu surface my Samsung tablet.

[@JoshuaBoyd]

How is the pen on Ubuntu Touch? I'm really tempted to get one to run linux for a Krita machine.

[@scara1701]

Have you experimented with scaling on the UI? Default things seem a bit small in the video, especially combined with touch interaction.

[@jahtnamas]

oh hell yeah, surface linux rules! my partner had snagged me a surface go 1 off ebay around the beginning of the year as a creative tablet i could stuff in my purse (tbh i wanted a go 2 but i'll take what i can get for $80) and i was surprised at how painless it was to put endeavourOS on it. odd that touch didn't work for your device under the mainline kernel, because i remember mine working in the liveISO. of course it works much better once the surface kernel is installed and running. type cover sleep/wake was also noticeably different between mainline and surface kernel.

[@moz2186]

Really nice to see this. I have an HP Envy Ryzen and Windows wont support it. Curious what Ubuntu has for the touch screen pen support. Which I'm kind of upset about. It HAS a TPM and otherwise meets every requirement besides being 1 gen behind on the processor.

[@95Comics]

I need one of these! Will this be available on whatnot anytime soon?

[@spark_bears]

After six years, my Surface Pro 6 is still running very well. Eventually MS will probably force me to "upgrade" to Windows 11, and Ubuntu seems like a viable alternative. Thank you for the instructional and edifying video!