this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (3 children)

You'll definitely need this: https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface

Gnome is probably the best with touchscreens. I had issues with Ubuntu though so you probably want something more up to date, like fedora or arch.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Also, highly recommend checking out Universal Blue's Surface images! It's pretty much everything you need out of the box! https://universal-blue.org/images/surface/?h=surface

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

That's even better! Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

To add another comment to your reply, have you tried it personally?

I'd like to back up my system before doing the switch. What do you recommend I use? Clonezilla with an external USB drive all plugged in using a USB hub?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I haven't tried the Surface images due to not having one, but I am using their Silverblue images to make the whole NVIDIA drivers thing a bit easier on my system.

Also I haven't needed to backup my system in over a year now (I stopped hopping with Silverblue) so I don't remember the solution I used, but this seems good.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

From your live stick, bevor install, do

# cp /dev/your-disk /your/image.img

or to save space:

# gzip < /dev/your-disk > /your/image.img.gz

or faster but might need to install it first:

# lz4 /dev/your-disk /your/image.img.lz4

To get a list of your disks, there's lsblk.

I recommend partition-wise backup, it's always a bother to extract/shrink individual partitions in images of whole disks. That would be /dev/your-disk1 etc

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, Fedora runs with wayland by default, which is really nice for touchscreens.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Don't want to be the guy shitting on Ubuntu, but Fedora is the way to go in my experience and afaik.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Fedora uses Wayland by default at least and it's really smooth, and it has gotten much better in the last two years or so. It also is a rolling release, which means always the newest software and latest kernel, which further improves wayland performance.

Canonical has made some questionable choices for Ubuntu in the last years like pushing the users to use snaps (which are shot) or advertisements in the terminal. But then again you can always use Debian in the first place i guess.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Very cool. Thank you for this.