this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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Are you guys still using microsoft ?
I'm on the hunt for a replacement for my Surface, but sure as shit not getting anything with copilot. Curious what alternatives are out there.
Linux options seem a little light on the tablet front.
I put Mint on my Surface Pro 5, it works quite nicely so far. Granted I do "typical" stuff on it like web browsing, email, basic picture editing, and some chats, but for those things everything's working fine.
The only different part of the install was installing the Surface kernel after the fact: https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface
Great to know! Does the pen still generally work for writing/notes? Also any clue if things work well with the newer generations?
Last I dug into Linux on the SP, it was a 3-4 generation lag on stable compatibility. My tablet is nearing EOL (because the charge port sucks and mine doesnt support USB-C charging as a fallback). If I replace it I don't love replacing it with something used, 4 years old, that may have a short life.
The pen seems to work fine so far.
They show fairly decent compatibility with newer models: https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Supported-Devices-and-Features#feature-matrix
Looks like the SP5 - 7 are the sweet spot however.
I installed Ubuntu in my surface go 2 and it’s light years ahead of windows in terms of performance.
I couldn’t get the camera to work though. But other than that it’s rock solid.
https://reddit.com/r/surfacelinux/
seems like raspberry pi os on touchscreen devices supports on-screen keyboards and basic touch-screen features. There's also the Librem 11 tablet, that runs linux on an Intel chip with Gnome.
Why are linux options light on the tablet front? It should work the same as on a laptop
Touch inputs can be a little messy, driver support for closed source hardware (e.g., MS Surface) is understandably rocky, and I've had bad experience with battery longevity especially on open source hardware.
My 6-year-old SP battery still has ~70% capacity, which is teriffic. I have had other laptops lose 90% of their capacity after just a year or two, so I'm skeptical of the tablet market.
I'm not saying good Linux tablets don't exist, just that I'm looking for recommendations since the waters feel murkier to me.
Ah okay that makes sense. Too bad the drivers are closed source that might be the cause of a lot of these issues
Mint runs great on my dell tablet. Touch screen works fine although I haven't tried it with a pen yet.
Nice. Which model is it?
Dell Latitude 5290. It's starting to show it's age but linux has made it snappy. Even runs lightweight steam games.
Nice
I still play Gears of War and Forza, unfortunately. Hopefully someone gets native Microslop games working on Linux soon.