Ask HN: Any decent Linux-compatible tablet/detachable laptop in 2022?

15 points by powersnail 3y ago ↗ HN

My surface pro 6's battery is dying, and it's way out of warranty, so the cost of replacing that battery is just no longer worth it.

Is there tablet or detachable laptop that:

- supports touch and pen on Linux

- can be used as a regular Linux computer

- with a screen that's at least 12 inches

- preferably under or around $1200?

Most 2-in-1s seem to be with a 360 hinge, which doesn't really fit my use case (too thick, too heavy, and not flat to put onto a music stand).

Thanks!

13 comments

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slezyr 3y ago ↗

Wacom tablet(just a display) might be an option.

https://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-displays/wacom-one

trynewideas 3y ago ↗

12" display is a killer requirement here. Lenovo (Duet) and Asus (CM3) make detachable Chromebooks, but neither tops 11". The CM3 has an integrated pressure-sensitive stylus. The HP X2 11 is right at 11" with a pen and dockable stylus, but in a 3:2 aspect ratio.

IIRC all modern Chrome OS devices support Linux containers, which probably won't be what you want either, and none of them are remotely very powerful. I don't know about the CM3, but I've installed Ubuntu on the Duet and I can find videos of people installing and running Ubuntu on the x2 with touch working.

powersnail 3y ago ↗

Even 12" requires a bit scaling down of a typical page of sheet music. 11" will be kinda difficult to read at playing distance, unless I can resize and reflow the sheet music somehow.

freedude 3y ago ↗

Try looking for either a laptop or a 2in1 PC and you will have greater success. System76 has some well engineered equipment with Linux preinstalled that is worth purchasing.

Use a "Live distro" version on your existing touchscreen laptop and boot from USB to test it before you install it on hardware.

powersnail 3y ago ↗

Sadly, System76 doesn't have anything with a touchscreen.

rowanG077 3y ago ↗

A surface pro 8 is not good enough? According to linux-surface repo (https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface) it's supported.

The ROG Flow Z13 is another candidate but it's not clear how support is. With differing reports I can find online. Also way out of budget.

Personally I'm holding on to the faint hope of Asahi Linux getting far enough and a kind soul jailbreaking an IPad Pro.

powersnail 3y ago ↗

SP 8 is great; the only reason I didn't upgrade from SP6 to SP8 immediate is that that pen support for SP8 is currently still experimental, while it's stable on SP6. I'm okay with tinkering, but I do need that pen support to work in a relatively reliable manner.

rowanG077 3y ago ↗

I would say your best bet is to restore your SP6. It's not so bad, I replaced the battery and screen on a SP5 a few years back. The screen is hard to remove but the rest is extremely straightforward.

powersnail 3y ago ↗

Where did you get the replacement parts if you don't mind me asking?

rowanG077 3y ago ↗

It was a local website: https://www.caasi.nl/ they don't carry them anymore.

natatana 3y ago ↗

I would love to have the new Dell XPS tablet [0] with Linux, unfortunately, unlike the XPS laptop, there don't offer to buy it with Linux pre-installed so we have no idea how well it is supported..

[0] https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/xps-13-9315-2-in...

bitswings 3y ago ↗

It's possible to run various Linux distros on a Microsoft Surface. Explaining Computers on Youtube put out a video on the limitations of using Linux on a touch screen though see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaCwLjIf3sU

jonas-w 3y ago ↗

I'm using the samsung galaxy book pro 360 since over a year just with linux and my experience with it is really great so far. Only thing that bothers me, is that the fingerprint sensor doesn't have a driver for Linux.

And the S-Pen works great on applications like Krita/Xournal++/rnote etc.