linux

Linux since ~1997 , on desktop and 1 laptop. Married for 10 years and i still cannot persuade my wife to turn her laptop too. ??

Distros chronologically, ( might miss some)
Suse
Ubuntu gnome
Ubuntu unity
Debian xfce
Arch xfce
Manjaro gnome
Pop_OS! Gnome
Debian i3

If you decide to install on the surface pro 4 there is a kernel adaptation for surface devices that makes everything pretty much work see here.

As for the tablet
You could try Zorin OS which already has a touchscreen desktop layout so should work on most touchscreen devices.


Do a lot of research before you buy and look for at least one forum where someone else has managed to do it successfully , that way you will avoid having to find all the snags and workarounds for yourself when installing.

Unless of course you are full hardcore and enjoy looking at a blank screen and trying to work out how the hell you are going to make it boot, which is what I did for years!

Just because you can do it does not mean that you have to !
Good luck and nice to see the spirit of adventure is still there in the Linux community.

Thank you so much for your time and effort in your response.

I checked out the site and I wanted to ask you for your opinion. Do you think it would be worth it to upgrade from the surface pro 4 to the surface pro 6? The 6 appears to have the best specs with the best Linux support.

Click here to see surface device support

Reason behind it is that Linux works best on the pro 6 and my surface pro 4 (lowest end model) is starting to feel sluggish these days and the battery is showing its age. But perhaps the sluggishness of my surface pro 4 is because of the insanity of windows overhead on a low spec device? Maybe Linux will show some improvement because it's less overhead?

I was looking on ebay and saw a lot of i5 surface pro 6s for prices within what I'm willing to spend and I even saw a few i7 surface pro 6s within what I'm willing to spend

In my experience over the years most if not all devices will perform better when you install linux rather than windows provided that you choose a linux distro that does what you need it do do and leave out the unnecessary bells and whistles of advanced graphics and desktop effects. The fact that you already own a pro4 means that in my opinion it would make sense to try a fresh install of linux and see how it goes for you, the beauty of linux being that wipe and start again is a relatively fast and easy option should it not meet your expectations. In the event that you find it to be adequate for your needs, you could spend a little of the money you have saved for a new device on a replacement battery and save yourself a lot of money by not buying a device that you actually do not need right now.

One of the greatest advances in data storage is the use of both external hard drives and cloud storage, this removes a lot of the need for a device to be working hard all the time reading and writing to disk and storing masses of data that is not all needed at the same time. Maker use of cloud and external storage and keep the pro 4 running for as long as possible would be my advice.

My own personal choice would always be to use the device I own and adapt the OS to suit what I need it for , you can strip a linux install down to the bare minimum and only run essential services and applications , breathing new life into devices otherwise considered obsolete. Your choice would need to be your own , but I am fairly sure there are other things you could use that money for! lol

I have resurrected many an old Toshiba from the scrapheap by doing a minimal install of Debian and only adding exactly what I need.

In summary, the difference between "need" and "want" is your only limitation.

Plus if you keep the pro4 running it will be a cool retro device in a few years and probably worth more than you paid for it in 20 years Load image: cool!

hope this is of some help.

Feel free to email me if you want to .

I have Kali and Ubuntu in VirtualBox, WSL and with dual-booting (overkill, but oh well :p). Would use only Ubuntu or Kali if it wasn't for the lack of programs.

it is my go to as well, find it works best with the few games i enjoy playing