Linux for Microsoft Surface devices. It is reality!

FarLine99@lemm.ee to Linux@lemmy.ml – 318 points –

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.

Links to project resources:

Awesome additional resources:

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Microsoft wants to give Linux a nice warm hug and then squeeze and squeeze and all the warmth disappears this is actually quite a high pressure oh that hurts Microsoft no ow are those needles coming out of your arms I think I hear bones splintering and screaming oh no it's me I'm screaming I'm hearing myself screaming I'm turning into

Fwiw, this is NOT an official Microsoft release, it's like Asahi Linux, where the community made it Linux-compatible

Yeah, I thought it was pretty clear because I talked about some "project" ❀️

This is cool, but if Microsoft would <3 Linux, they would do this themself.

I applaud Linux on as many laptops as possible. But given Microsoft's history of EEE, bad security practices and multiple and on going privacy violations I would really not recommend using anything Microsoft. If you must use fx Surface I would recommend buying a used one. Or better yet a used Thinkpad or similar enterprise laptop used.

Security? Maybe. Privacy? Too hard and nonsense to implement hardware tracking to spy on 1% of users without Windows.

Agree on privacy. And why bother when Intel/AMD have their Management Engine (ME) and AMD their equivalent.

But why support a company like Microsoft when they have a long history of prioritizing profit over user freedom (FOSS/EEE), security and privacy?

Because there is no such well made 2-in-1 device from System76, Tuxedo or some another good manufacturer.

Perhaps you think the device is good?

By all means use it if it suits your needs πŸ™‚ My point is that there are alternatives, like fx Lenovo Yoga or similar, where you dont support Microsoft and their history of bad behavior.

We all got different priorities and if it isn't something on your radar, that's fine. For me I would rather be without than buy a Surface for the mentioned reasons.

For sure, and to be clear, I do agree with you. Ultimately, we've all got our own priorities, and I can absolutely understand why someone might be reluctant to throw money at Microsoft; I'm certainly one of those people myself (obligatory "I use Arch"). My only point is that some people may simply think the devices are good and don't have any qualms about supporting Microsoft, as is their right too.

I don't know the current state of Lenovo, but I do remember not so long ago they were shipping some pretty bad software on their laptops... so I find it a tad ironic to mention Microsoft's bad behavior, but then recommend Lenovo πŸ˜…

I don't really use laptops, I have an old 2015(?) MacBook that runs Fedora on it for whenever I need something portable on the rare occasion, so I don't know whose good vs bad these days.

I know Lenovo is no angel but still a single piece of sand compared to the vast desert of Microsoft in terms of bad bahaviour.

We deserve System76, Tuxedo, Framework, PineBook etc. And if that doesn't suit the use case a used Thinkpad, Macbook (a sandbox in the analogy) or Dell is OK options. There's IMHO plenty of options that's better than the desert of Microsoft πŸ™‚

That's completely fair on all accounts! I'd love to be able to try the offerings from the better companies some day, but money has been very tight and they're definitely on the pricier side (for good reason of course) at least on my own scale of what I have available - the MacBook was given to me second hand so I didn't find it myself or else I would've definitely spent the money on a really nice System76 laptop!

Same here! Rolling old Thinkpads because of the Linux compatibility, price and reparability is hard to beat. Would like to support the good companies more, but like the tinkering.

Our talk made me think about the ethics of tech companies in general. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a 'Tech Companies Ethics Index' kinda like Phoronix/Toms Hardware Guide is for hardware, but which documents and compare tech on fx the following consumer relevant parameters:

  • Privacy
  • Security
  • Openness / FOSS / EEE
  • User friendliness
  • Reparability
  • Other?

Sources could be: privacyguides, EFF, FSF, iFixit usere own experience and so on.

It could be run by users who also contribute to a git something and site something.

It sounds more like they are suggesting that you shouldn't buy a Surface as to not support Microsoft's stake in the market. But hardware level tracking does sound pretty spooky if they were actually able to pull it off and make it worthwhile. I'm with you though, I doubt it

It is not worth the hassle. And very easy to detect (network traffic f.e.)

Surfaces are abysmal for repairs and upgrades, as well. They're literally glued together like a smartphone.

This is why I bought the Dell 5290 2-in-1. It can be opened and the battery and ssd can be replaced for cheap.

It is weird, I agree. But I don't think there is some another way to do it with so thin case and good performance.

I'd argue it's significantly more preferable to have a laptop that's a little thicker but you can safely open in a couple of minutes with a screwdriver, but your mileage may vary.

I really like the Dell 5290 2-in-1. Not a surface but with 16 gigs of ram and an Intel i7-8650 CPU its a very capable tablet. It runs Linux well and everything just works. The downside is most DE's are not optimized for a tablet. I found KDE with the maliit-keyboard is the most usable combination.

Awesome configuration. Also use Plasma with Maliit keyboard. Also found it the best configuration!

Fedora has plasma-mobile available if you want to try a more traditional tablet interface. The downside is the settings for it conflict with the plasma desktop so you have to start with a clean config folder. Kinda interesting to play around with but found the desktop more to my liking.

I tried it on Arch Linux. But I mostly use my Surface as laptop so it is not needed, default Plasma is good enough tablet experience. And the config mess, oh goddddd... It was pain to restore default plasma settings.

do the cameras work?

Looks like they do not work. After doing some online searches I see people asking but no solutions. You would need a stand alone USB camera if you needed that functionality.

I also recently got a Surface Pro 6. I got it used for $200, but it was in great condition, low battery cycles, and came with one of the keyboard covers. As you said, everything works. Gnome in Wayland is pretty good for touchscreen. I also got a third party pen for it that works great in Krita and xournal++.

I wish using it as a tablet was a bit better supported in Gnome or other DEs, and the battery life is only ... OK. Still, as a thin and light linux tablet I can carry in my bag to work on light tasks or look up content it's fantastic. The keyboard cover also makes it great for typing, programming, or opening remote shells on the go.

As of my experience, Plasma is better (funny) with handling touchscreen than GNOME. Maybe you should try to use it. Generally it is really good experience. Yup, some caviots here and there but meh, small thing πŸ™‚

I have tried Plasma. Imo, it's not even close. X11 style touch works OK in Plasma, but the multi touch gestures for navigation isn't anywhere near as good as Gnome with Wayland. In Gnome, I'm just missing a few quality of life gestures, like being able to swipe from an edge to un-hide the auto-hide dock.

I also tried Plasma Mobile (which was amazing for tablet like navigation), but the hi-DPI scaling was all broken.

Latest Plasma Wayland is really stable. You should try it 😏

I'm typing this on my desktop that is running Plasma wayland right now. The touch gestures don't give as much of a tablet experience. It's not that plasma doesn't work. If I want to use it as a "pure tablet" without normal computer interactions with the keyboard at all, then it's not a great fit. Gnome is miles ahead for that use case.

I wanted a small device to take notes on for school, but that I could also do development on for my cs classes. Got a surface go 3, put fedora (gnome) on it, added the surface kernel, and it's honestly a better tablet experience than windows. I use xournal++ for notetaking and the stylus and touchscreen all work great.

It is awesome experience, agreed! You can try Rnote, Xournal++ in concept but way better UI. Xournal++ has better PDF support though.

Yeah I draw over a lot of pdfs so that support is pretty important. The UI isn't great but I can at least customize it, and I've gotten it to a place I'm happy with.

Using a Pro 6 with Linux (Arch now, but used Ubuntu and Fedora in the past). I wouldn’t say that camera works like a charm, far from that.

It works. And it is stable. Also Arch is worse with camera than Fedora. Okey for video calls.

i run debian sid on a surface go and i love it. my daily driver, and one of my favorite PCs in a very long time.

Awesome. Is it stable (not breaking) experience for you? Debian Unstable anyway πŸ™‚

a little funny since the freeze lifted due to the sheer number of new versions all appearing at once, but nothing is breaking. typical post-freeze hiccups - they subside quickly, nothing has gotten in the way of being productive, and im used to it after 23 years of running Sid.

23 years... WOW😲 We found another Linux Hardcore user πŸ˜ƒ

i would think that 23 years of primarily running one distro would be more notable, haha

Speech, vocabulary changes. Hair falls out. There is a personal penguin πŸ₯ΉπŸ€£

I'm looking for a device to read comics (bandes dessinΓ©es, the taller A4 format), newspapers, rss feeds

I use an ipad for now, but I'd like to get rid of it

It needs high definition (at least 1440p) in a 12" or 13" screen. (11 too, less ideal), and to stay cool while reading/light browsing

I would love for this to be a Linux device.
Could this be it? What would be the cheapest option?

edit: a surface pro 3 at 200€?

Pro 3 will be pretty good for your needs. It will have bad battery life but if you use it at home then no problem.

Aw, no Surface RT tablet support. Mine is a paperweight at this point Windows RT is almost nonfunctional.

My Surface Go 1 is a really great Linux device with Fedora on it and I use the usb-c to have it displayed on a big screen when necessary. Sadly the cameras don’t work yet..

You can make them work on Surface Go 1. Link to guide from developers. It is stated that you have to install v4l2loopback-dkms but on Fedora it is named v4l2loopback and it is in RPM Fusion. Also install kernel-surface-devel package.

Yeah thanks. Sadly, to be honest, I feel like it’s above my technical knowledge and I’m a bit scared of breaking my install by trying.

I can help ☺️

Thanks for the proposal but I’ll play it safe as I really don’t have time to tinker anything these daysπŸ‘

Have a good time of day πŸ™‚β€οΈ

I'm running EndeavourOS on my Surface Pro 7. Only 2 things are not working, the camera and I haven't figured out how to get rotation to work. I am using Wayland compositor with KDE Plasma and occasionally Hyprland.

There is no way to get camera working on SP7, it is not supported. To get autorotate work install iio-sensor-proxy, enable autorotation in Screen settings and uncheck "only in tablet mode" checkmark under enable autorotation button πŸ™‚

Thanks for the autorotate! Works great in KDE! I knew the camera was a lost cause, but it causes so many problems in windows I wasn't worried about it.

Good to know I wasn't useless ❀️

I'm grabbing a decommissioned surface pro 7 from work today! Just need to order a charger for it, and I'll try this out :)

Wish you best luck. Write here with issues. Will answer if there is internet around πŸ™‚

So far so good. I put fedora on it, and starting to play around. Gnome seems pretty well suited to the tablet.

Time to whip out my old Surface Pro 4, wonder if it will help with the screen flickering issue.

Sadly, it will not. Very weird hardware bug πŸ˜•

I have an old Surface Book 1. I have windows 11 on it and it works ok. I can't run anything heavy on it of course but little web browsing and zoom meeting etc. works fine. I really enjoy the awesome camera and face id login. I am worried with Linux install, the camera will not be as good. If someone can confirm their experience on SB1, I can be convinced to install Linux on it.

No FaceID, worse camera quality, worse Battery life. If it is ok, go and try it. If not, it is okey πŸ™‚

Yeah, seems like a deal breaker to me. What do you even gain then? Performance improvements?

We like Linux. Freedom. Privacy. GNOME UI is really well adapted for tablets with it's gestures and overview effect. Plasma is also very good. Animations are way more smooth and responsive than on Windows.

This comment states that everything good with Book 2 so maybe Book 1 will also have good battery life.

Unfortunately I have the surface book 1 but I am happy for people running Linux :)

I think it will be similar experience.