Still not there for art, sadly. For example their pen has only half of the pressure sensitivity SPs better pens have :(

Sometimes linux is just not possible with the hardware :(

I tried my best, but neither my SP7’s touch screen or pen functionality work properly with linux (even with the linux-surface-kernel). And there’s still no good alternatives for SPs in the market either, for tablet+computer+works properly for art (at least any I could ever afford)

I do have a cintiq as my main art station (wacom definitely is worth the money!), but sometimes I really need the portable one, and a separate computer + tablet doesn’t really work for that… And also sadly the portable wacom tablet machine things themselves (movinkpad, I think) don’t really cut it for other computer stuff either.

This is just i5, but I don’t really do much stuff that requires anything better. As long as SAI 2 and some basic stuff runs, it’s been enough for me. And yeah, the overheating really is a big issue if you try to do anything outside some very light usage. I do play minecraft with this sometimes, and that’s about the upper limit this thing can handle… it does still work well enough though, even if after some hours coretemp shows the temperatures get a bit high.

I definitely would not recommend this thing without an added fan. Well, I honestly wouldn’t really recommend any SPs with it either, unless you really need this specific combination of small/artsy enough/yet still computer.

That’s what I feared, oh well. Win10 it is for me then…

I’ve not run those de-bloaters, but I checked one that scanned what could be done with 11, and I had managed to kill most of the bloat even without running it, but even that did not improve the performance. It even takes a lot of effort and needs to be repeated constantly, since the damn shit tries to install everything back with every update. Win10 is a bit more merciful in that regard as well, so despite “downgrading” it really feels like I upgraded this thing instead.

I’d really prefer something like Zorin, I got the memory consumption to 1,5 gb at it’s lowest when I tried intentionally, which is pretty impressive with the visuals I could still keep. I’d also rather not to have anything microslop-build, but sadly SP’s are still pretty much the only option available that’s small enough to really work as a tablet, has good enough pen sensitivity for drawing, but still works as a proper computer… I would never buy anything after SP9 though, it’s all some copilot infested shit.

I tried with the kernel, but it just makes the touch work barely with Zorin, so I’m trying to figure out would something else run it any better. And yeah, it seems people agree that gnome is the way to go

Yeah… I might have to. Win11 is only the absolute last resort, since it’s such a garbage fire. It installed itself on the SP7 without my consent, and just kept getting worse and worse every update, until the machine barely worked without lagging. Insane that an os hogs something like 6GB ram just for being on, and even on a damn machine microslop made themselves

Yeah tried and failed, I get them working but not even close on the level good enough for art

Tried and failed, I just can’t get it to work. I got the pressure working, but the cursor won’t focus properly and is all over the place, it’s something to do with the integrated touch screen somehow. Not with wine, not even with non-flatpak bottles :(

It might run on the SP7, but I just won’t risk an OS install without getting it work on some other touch screen mint first. I’ve considered trying zorin on this extra one too though, to see if it would work better with this touch screen, or is it just the SP that’s the problem.