Stats:
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7300U CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.71 GHz
Installed RAM 8.00 GB
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Hardrive 117 GB
Pen and touch Pen and touch support with 10 touch points
If the system looks good, any install tips would be welcome.
I’ve been running Pop!OS on my Surface Pro 6 (i7-8650U) for a while now (with the linux-surface kernel!), and touch/pen support is relatively good; only weird thing is the limitation around what the pen can do; e.g. you can touch-scroll with your fingers (and other gestures) but you can’t use the pen to scroll; the pen behaves more like a mouse, e.g. it will highlight text instead of moving the page (which makes sense)
You shouldn’t have any issues with installing the base OS; the keyboard cover should just work; but pen/touch doesn’t work out of the box, so to get that you will need the linux-surface kernel. I use the https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Package-Repositories (as Pop!OS is a Debian or Ubuntu derivative - they use the same packaging system). Note that you will also likely want to tell the package manager to “hold” the installation of the non-surface kernel, using https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/focal/man8/apt-mark.8.html. You’ll probably want to hold linux-headers-generic and linux-generic. (I think I have particular versions held as well.)
I quite like to use the “Xournal++” app for touch/pen friendly writing/drawing, and have also used it for signing PDFs (though only the visual type of signature, not the digital type like Adobe does).
I got it working on an old Surface Pro 3 I had sitting around. Haven’t tested the pen, but the touchscreen and Windows button work fine for me, which is amazing! I just had to turn off secure boot or whatever to install.
It will run just fine. Almost every and any linux distro will work more than fine on a PC with these specs.
edit : I have a KDE distro running flawlessly on a 3rd generation i5 and 6Gb RAM. Sure, I don't use graphic-intensive programs on it but apart from that it's fine for work/everyday casual use
It'll run pretty damn well. I've got pop on my min spec 2013 Macbook Pro, and, while it is slow at times, that's mainly because I've been too lazy to open it up and swap drives.
I'm running pop on a lenovo yoga x1 first gen. i7-6600u, 16 GB ram, runs great other than video decoding is a little resource intensive. As others have stated, bigger concern is whether other hardware (bluetooth/wifi/ etc) is supported.
Ps- stylus and touchscreen on my yoga work fine and show up as generic tablet device.
I recently installed Pop_OS 22.04 on a surface pro 4 (i5-6300U w/ 8G Ram). It runs well but I haven’t tested the pen or put any effort into getting the touchscreen working. I just really needed it to not be windows because I was stuck using it for a week.
Sorry for the delay but that is because I was getting my Pop_OS installed and updated. Really digging it so far. Need to update the kernel for touch screen still but otherwise really happy with it.
Thanks, I'm well familiar with Linux but new to Pop_OS. I installed it on an older model Toshiba, but it was really slow. I've never tried to install on a Surface so any tips would be welcome. I've tried to boot from USB but I get errors. I'd really like to move away from Ubuntu, the OS I've used for I don't know how many years now. I just don't like the whole Snap thing.
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