Hi, lets talk about 2in1 laptops and tablets. Which ones are the best for running linux on them, which ones are your favorites right now, what do you like using them for, etc. I find myself really missing having a 2in1 sometimes, especially for the portability aspects of them.
Update:
I have been thinking about what my usecases for it will be and I’m definitely leaning more towards a tablet for it’s better portability. I think the StarLite will be the biggest contender so far.
Some of the main things I would like to be using it for will be:
-navigation in my vehicle
-videos
-music
-browsing/online research
-weather station
I’m using a HP spectre x360 since 2020-12 and I love it so much. I don’t use the tablet functionality often. The touch works pretty well as far as I can say. The notebook, even if it’s 13" ultra portable, is a little heavy for constant tablet usage. Everything else rocks aside of the thumbprint thingy. I use howdy instead.
What about the Starlite 5
I am using input by a pen a lot, to draw in my PDFs. It seems like Starlite doesn’t support that? I hope I am wrong, this is a major reason for 2-in-1s, isn’t it.
I recently picked up an older MS Surface model and it has been really good. I don’t know where tablet bleeds into 2in1, but it’s a tablet that has a magnetic keyboard that pops on and off and accepts USB connections for stuff like mice with a USB to USB-C adapter or via a surface dock. Prices start at around $70 on ebay for older models in decent condition and run up to around $2k for the highest end models directly from Microsoft. Being x86 they accept any compatible OS (including Linux) and installs just as easy as any laptop (minus the later models that need the touch driver installed manually on Linux or a Windows re-install). If you go with a surface and buy an older model make sure you get 8gb of ram instead of 4.
As far as setup goes, I went with Gnome, enabled the on screen keyboard, then added the “custom hot corners” Gnome plugin to get a working on screen keyboard everywhere (without the plugin it only works in Gnome and Gnome apps). Afterwards (since I went with an older model that didn’t need the touch drivers) it’s fully ready for use like any other device.
There’s also the PineTab2, though from the sounds of it it’s not really ready to be used as a tool, more so just for development and experimentation. I did find two good blog posts about it’s state when researchign devices which would be worth reading if you were considering buying a PineTab2 and wanted to know what to expect:
https://ivonblog.com/en-us/posts/pine64-pinetab2-review/
https://ivonblog.com/en-us/posts/after-3-months-of-daily-driving-pinetab-2/
Did you use the linux-surface-kernel? This project is awesome for getting as many functions of a surface running as possible. There are lots of useful information and tipps for every surface model too.
About a year ago I was lucky on eBay, winning an old Acer Switch Alpha 12 for ~95€ including shipping. I think it was released about 2016.
Even if it shows a lot of signs of wear, it is still a very good device. I received it with Windows 11, but of course I didn’t want use it like that. 4 gigs of ram aren’t enough for that anyway.
So I installed Fedora. (Had to rename the uefi boot entry for it to boot from disk. This is described elsewhere online but if you read this post and wonder how to do it, please dm me and I’ll be happy to help.)
Now this is my primary device for when I’m away from my desktop PC. Gnome is stunning on 2-in-1s IMO, much better than Windows would ever be.
Hardware wise everything works just fine out of the box, apart from the rear camera which isn’t recognized, but I wouldn’t use that anyway.
Honestly, the Switch Alpha 12 is the poor man’s MS Surface and I think it’s a shame that Acer has apparently given up on this device class. For now I’m happy to use this pc for as long as I can.
The Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro works decently and is cheap
