I have an unused Windows tablet from 2021 running some Core M processor or other that I want to put Linux on and start using again. It doesn’t have a keyboard so I would have to actually use it as a tablet and not a laptop. Is there a distro built around one of the mobile desktop environments that also runs well on x86? (Last time I tried Linux mobile it was pretty much only for ARM and I never got it to work well on even an x86 virtual machine.) Or is regular GNOME deskrop still my best bet for a tablet?
gnome is honestly good as is
Tbh I think the official Ubuntu should be a good choice for that. GNOME should work pretty well with a touchscreen, at least last time I checked. Also, even on some lower spec hardware it should be fast enough.
I think that, if your tablet is actually from post-2010, your processor should definitely be capable of x64 (you specifically wrote x86). But maybe you also just used x86 as a general term for like x86-x64 CPUs.
Maybe it would help to tell us your specific CPU model and maybe RAM, just to be safe.
I have an older x86 tablet that I tinker with. The DE I have found to work the best with touch only is KDE Plasma Mobile. Reliable and works similarly to Android.
GNOME has been surprisingly unstable, like an update might ruin some touch capability and make the tablet unusable. It also had weird quirks like not being able to move some windows around, or the cursor some how getting stuck and needing to plug in a mouse to move it again.
Currently I am running EndeavourOS with plasma mobile installed from the AUR which works really well the only thing that sucks is when there is an update for the DE and I have to build the package, which takes a while on that tablet.
Whichever distro you pick, go with the KDE version, then install “plasma-mobile” from the repos.
I don’t recommend Fedora as a distro for this as they do not have the Maliit keyboard in the repos and you will have to build it yourself.
Last time I tryed Fedora KDE few months back it had a Maliit keyboard, but I was using the desktop version of the shell.
Does Android support x86? Might be worth a look. Yes, I know it’s not strictly Linux, but it’s certainly designed for tablets.
AFAIK Android for x86 was a short project that only lasted some years and has been mostly abandoned unfortunately.
BlissOS might do?
They state x86_64 on their downloads page, so it is probably for 64 bit systems only, but OP’s tablet being from 2021 should be 64 bit.
That’s interesting! Actually a friend contacted me yesterday about android on a PC, and while I immediately replied „no“ I just revisited this and saw your reply! We‘ll give it a shot I think! Thank you!
Mobian has an amd64 image available. If you are looking for a “tablet” tablet experience rather than just desktop gnome with an on screen keyboard then that is going to be your best bet.
In terms of DE I would stay with GTK enviroments because GNOME circle has created a pretty extensive environment of apps that feel native there. Both PHOSH and GNOME mobile offer basically the sane experience so you should try them both and see, which you like more in the details
Edit: here is the install guide: https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/x86
