this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
41 points (95.6% liked)

Linux

47317 readers
661 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Has anyone bought one of these?

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/08/star-labs-reveal-their-new-starlite-a-surface-like-linux-tablet/

They look pretty good, and the price is decent.

top 23 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] llothar@lemmy.ml 16 points 10 months ago

I ordered one. First units should be shipped early December. Right now they seem to be some out - just few days ago you could order with 7-8 weeks delivery, now it's just 'notify when available'.

[–] Quackdoc@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I find that even if you get a touch primary device, make sure to get one with a keyboard, Ubuntu, Fedora, doesn't matter, KDE, Gnome doesn't matter, the touch only experience on linux is simply not great. Make extra sure to get the keyboard with it if its optional.

[–] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Absolutely. Touch would just be a nice extra feature to me.

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

+1 have been trying to make a Linux tablet work. Gnome is alright but it's got a crap CPU and 2gb of ram and nothing lightweight has good touch support annoyingly

[–] Quackdoc@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I am, very hesitantly, optimistic for the new smithay based compositors. Cosmic doesn't have touch support yet, but it's super light weight, I get better perf then I do even with KDE. I plan on swapping to it full time on my tablet when it gets touch support. (and when some touch friendly gui stuff is available). you also have catacomb which is an actual mobile compositor. Very promising stuff, but still very far out

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I was trying things along the lines of hyprland, sway and i3. I have this idea in my head that a touch screen tiling WM would work really well (from what I've seen that's what people love so much about the iPad nowadays anyway)

Hyprland has something called hyprgrass I think which enables touchscreen gestures, still in the process of figuring out how to install that in NixOS though. (it's got a nix.flake but it's not in nixpkgs and I'm still unsure of how to install flakes to a traditional configuration.nix setup)

[–] Quackdoc@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

You could probably look into something like paperwm or Niri, I think scrollable window managers have a lot of potential to be a novel but good touch experience

EDIT: Im not sure if niri support touch, I havent tested it, but I think i might actually try it myself when I get the chance now

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

I got a pretty good setup going with forge, problem is gnome is too heavy, this thing has 2gb of memory and like 2ghz CPU

[–] faction2145@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I preordered on announcement day, I expect it'll arrive December. I am excited for it to replace my 12" iPad pro. The 3:2 screen is perfect for reading and office app work.

You can check their status page for updates by model https://support.starlabs.systems/status

[–] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Thanks for the link! I'm really close to pulling the trigger on this.

[–] desmosthenes@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

didn’t know about this till just now; very interesting

[–] TechAdmin@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Yes, my order status has been at preparing to ship for awhile now. I been wanting a good Linux tablet to replace aging iPad and hoping this works well enough for me. I'll try to remember to update post on how I like it when it does arrive.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I don't really like tablets in the first place. Don't understand what they're for that laptops can't already do.

But aside from that, the problem is not hardware, it's the OS. Android, iOS and iPad OS are all distinctly very different from their desktop counterparts, with respect to how you interact with the device. Linux needs the same.

[–] Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 13 points 10 months ago
[–] randomname01@feddit.nl 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They’re more portable, lighter and arguably perfect for media consumption on the go. Add a decent detachable keyboard and it’s all the computer quite a few people will ever need.

Just depends on how you use your pc.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They’re more portable, lighter

Sure, but is that so important that it's worth spending hundreds of dollars on an entirely separate device that you still have to carry and manage?

[–] tristan@aussie.zone 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You're assuming that everybody that buys a tablet like this also wants/has a laptop. Many people ONLY want the tablet as a portable computer while having a more powerful desktop in their home or office

In my case I have a tablet and a laptop, but my laptop ends up staying at home 99% of the time docked and acting as a desktop. When it comes time to replace it, I'll just get a desktop and keep the tablet

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 2 points 10 months ago

I see. I guess everyone I know that has a tablet also has a laptop, and carries both of them around. Makes more sense as a laptop replacement, I suppose.

[–] Metatronz@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Sounds freaking sweet!

[–] tinkeringidiot@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I put Ubuntu on a handful of Surface Pros a couple years ago for work, and while the process wasn’t horrible, I was wishing for something with more native support the whole time. Nice to see I wasn’t the only one.

[–] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This was another route I was thinking about. Any idea how hard it is to do now?

[–] tinkeringidiot@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

It’s been awhile and I haven’t tried to latest hardware, but I’m sure it’s still doable. The process wasn’t terrible, just a few extra steps to add compatibility for some of the devices.

I mostly just used the guidance here:

https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface

[–] authed@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

Doesn't look like it's available yet