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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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?

  • uxellodunum@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    5 hours ago

    I also have a Surface GO 2 and been running Linux for the past 2 years. In the beginning the only “trouble” was that you you needed the surface-linux kernel for drivers, but that’s no longer the case as all drivers have been upstreamed to the mainline kernel.

    For distros, anything goes as long as it has a recent kernel. I just go full Arch (EndeavourOS is also a good choice).

    What you probably want to pay attention to is the desktop environment - i’ve found Gnome works best for touch and tablet devices KDE requires some tweaking.

    For 2, check the flathub store, you might be impressed with what you find for note-taking and PDF editing. Definitely some good options out there for Linux.

    3 is a preference. Generally use internal storage for OS and external for data. Linux doesn’t take that much space, so if with 120GB you’re having storage issues, just ditch windows, problem solved, lighter system.

    4 Yes it works.