this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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@deleted @leninmummy have you tried other distros with better proprietary driver support? Debian is known to stick with FOSS.
Also touchscreen is not a very common feature even in laptops let alone linux. The more your hardware deviates the higher the chances of breakage. Try live booting a bunch of distros and try if the same breaks everywhere.
No, I’ve only tried Debian. I’ve installed linux firmware packages and added non-free in sources. Also, installed surface firmware from github.
The touch is working, however, it’ll behave differently with each element. Sometimes would scroll and sometimes select.
I spent 2 days making intel iGPU hardware acceleration working btw.
Even though Windows works flawlessly, Id prefer broken Linux over it.
I think you'd do yourself a favour by trying some other distro.
Sure.
Any recommendations?
It’ll be a tablet for school stuff like ms teams and light browsing.
Touch friendly GUI is a plus.
I'm biased to immutable distros ever since I tried Fedora Silverblue. It's stable with rolling release. I have used the rollback feature once when gnome kinda got messed up in an update. I think gnome is touch friendly but never tried it myself in a touch device. There's also vanilla os, another immutable distro which based on Ubuntu atm. They're supposedly rebasing to Debian in the future.
From what I've heard Debian is rock solid on the servers. Not so much for a desktop use. Since you're on a unusual device i might have suggested manjaro, endeavour and the other arch based oses. But that's close to playing with fire. It's easy to break but you'll get the latest software on the edge. Manjaro even seemed to check for the proper drivers when I used it long ago. Pop os is great for nvidia users.
There was a GitHub link somewhere above. Check your device. See what works with the mainline kernel and what doesn't. You could hopefully look for patches for stuff that someone have put out there. If not you're out of luck for that feature with your device. Ideally, you'd be the one working on it. But if you don't have the expertise, you could raise issues and hope someone finds it important enough to work on. Using a rolling distro, you'd get the feature as soon as it is mainlined to the kernel.
I installed linux-surface and gnome 43. everything now works.