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Comment by TekMol | Hacker News Reader

Does Linux run well on the Surface?

If so, it would be an interesting device. 10" is somewhat small though. And I guess the weight of 1.15 pounds is without a keyboard. Any guesses how much a keyboard will add on top of that?

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I own the following devices: Surface 3 (non-Pro,) Surface Pro 3, and a Surface Pro 2017:

    - Surface 3: Atom x7, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB HDD
    - Surface Pro 3: i7, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB HDD
    - Surface Pro 2017: i7, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD

I use these devices daily as my main machines. I use them interchangably. All of the devices run Arch Linux with identical configurations. None are currently configured for dual-boot. All of them run the same long-running programmes (e.g., Slack, Hangouts,) though I use each device for a different purpose:

    - Surface 3: reading PDFs & documentation, email
    - Surface Pro 3: backup device
    - Surface Pro 2017: software development, general use

All of devices are usable for actual day-to-day work.

The devices run different kernels:

    - Surface 3: stock LTS kernel or Zen kernel with patches
    - Surface Pro 3: stock LTS or stock Zen kernel
    - Surface Pro 2017: git kernel with patches from (http://github.com/jakeday/linux-surface)

None of the devices support S3 suspend. They support only "Connected Standby." (https://lwn.net/Articles/580451/)

Works on all devices:

    - hibernate
    - SecureBoot, TPM
    - touchscreen, pen input
    - Typecover (detach/reattach), touchpad multitouch
    - sensors (rotation, ambient light)
    - WiFi, Bluetooth
    - audio
    - SD card

Surface 3:

    - DisplayPort doesn't always work
    - webcams don't work

Surface 3 Pro:

    - everything works 100% with stock kernels

Surface Pro 2017:

    - battery readings don't work
    - webcams don't work

I am overall very happy with these computers. They are the first machines in a long time that I have been "excited about." Linux support so far is good (ranges from a B- to an A+) and within the range of being usable for daily work.

> None of the devices support S3 suspend.

I wouldn't consider a mobile device with broken S3 suspend to be "usable for actual day-to-day work", but to each their own I guess.

> - battery readings don't work

Wow. That's sad.

Things should be improving now that Microsoft loves open source, right? Right?

It tends to take a few years before it runs well on any hardware like this. Come back in 2020 and if you still care it’ll probably work well.

Check r/surfacelinux, but to answer your question, usually you can Linux well when it's patched to support all the non-standard hardware. If I recall correctly, Surface up to Surface III are well supported so far.

I wouldn't bet on it personally - I did run linux ok on my old Surface Pro, but found the hardware less than reliable in general and had a couple of driver problems to work around.

I am using WSL to target Linux from VS2017 and it works like a dream. Twice as fast as VirtualBox (at least) and everything I need right there. Ubuntu and Debian.

WSL =/= running Linux.

WSL == a compatibility layer on top of Windows kernel with binaries on top.

WSL doesn't contain a single line of code from Linux.

If you are talking about the Linux kernel, true. If you are talking about "Gnu/Linux" then not.

Nobody's talking about the GNU part on top of Linux when discussing hardware compatibility because that part has nothing to do with hardware compatibility.

Nobody’s talking about running Linux (or any OS) just for the hell of it, but for the programs that they need that it can run. And WSL has run everything I’ve thrown at it so far.

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