Yeah... I might have to. Win11 is only the absolute last resort, since it's such a garbage fire. It installed itself on the SP7 without my consent, and just kept getting worse and worse every update, until the machine barely worked without lagging. Insane that an os hogs something like 6GB ram just for being on, and even on a damn machine microslop made themselves

Yeah tried and failed, I get them working but not even close on the level good enough for art

Sometimes linux is just not possible with the hardware :(

I tried my best, but neither my SP7's touch screen or pen functionality work properly with linux (even with the linux-surface-kernel). And there's still no good alternatives for SPs in the market either, for tablet+computer+works properly for art (at least any I could ever afford)

I've not run those de-bloaters, but I checked one that scanned what could be done with 11, and I had managed to kill most of the bloat even without running it, but even that did not improve the performance. It even takes a lot of effort and needs to be repeated constantly, since the damn shit tries to install everything back with every update. Win10 is a bit more merciful in that regard as well, so despite "downgrading" it really feels like I upgraded this thing instead.

I'd really prefer something like Zorin, I got the memory consumption to 1,5 gb at it's lowest when I tried intentionally, which is pretty impressive with the visuals I could still keep. I'd also rather not to have anything microslop-build, but sadly SP's are still pretty much the only option available that's small enough to really work as a tablet, has good enough pen sensitivity for drawing, but still works as a proper computer... I would never buy anything after SP9 though, it's all some copilot infested shit.

I do have a cintiq as my main art station (wacom definitely is worth the money!), but sometimes I really need the portable one, and a separate computer + tablet doesn't really work for that... And also sadly the portable wacom tablet machine things themselves (movinkpad, I think) don't really cut it for other computer stuff either.

I'm trying :( but they don't work well enough on my stupid machine

I tried with the kernel, but it just makes the touch work barely with Zorin, so I'm trying to figure out would something else run it any better. And yeah, it seems people agree that gnome is the way to go

Tried and failed, I just can't get it to work. I got the pressure working, but the cursor won't focus properly and is all over the place, it's something to do with the integrated touch screen somehow. Not with wine, not even with non-flatpak bottles :(

It might run on the SP7, but I just won't risk an OS install without getting it work on some other touch screen mint first. I've considered trying zorin on this extra one too though, to see if it would work better with this touch screen, or is it just the SP that's the problem.

Yeah... my machine got so slow and with every update breaking something new I had to "downgrade" to win10 (I'm aiming for linux, but no luck :( so far, at least). Now everything magically works again

Yeah... :( I got this before win11 was a thing, but had there been other viable options for what I needed, I wouldn't have bought anything microsoft-made in the first place

it has good or bad pen support

Sadly if you're making art and not a beginner, it's not enough it works, you need it to work flawlessly. If there's even the slightest lag or the connection cuts sometimes or whatever else, it becomes really hard to actually get anything done properly :(

I've tried :( just seems it's not possible

Oh, I just have a surface pro 7. Since it's microslop-build, getting the touch screen and pen to work properly might be impossible, since I couldn't get it to be good enough even with the linux-surface-kernel, and have not really found any hope online. As my main use for the thing is art, rendering it useless just to get it on linux isn't exactly something I want... :(

I kinda gave up for now and switched to win10 since I don't enjoy distro hopping. I might just have to wait until the linux-surface-kernel evolves to be more compatible or I find some solid confirmation someone has managed to make the thing work perfectly with a distro...

I'm stuck because my SP7 didn't work properly with linux even with the surface kernel and there aren't any working alternatives (or at least what I can afford..) for what I'm using it for :(

I was forced to upgrade back to to win10 because win11 is so broken it was unusable.. the taskbar is forever busted and wouldn't even display all apps, microslop has no excuse, they build the SP7! And then made an os that doesn't work with it!

This is just i5, but I don't really do much stuff that requires anything better. As long as SAI 2 and some basic stuff runs, it's been enough for me. And yeah, the overheating really is a big issue if you try to do anything outside some very light usage. I do play minecraft with this sometimes, and that's about the upper limit this thing can handle... it does still work well enough though, even if after some hours coretemp shows the temperatures get a bit high.

I definitely would not recommend this thing without an added fan. Well, I honestly wouldn't really recommend any SPs with it either, unless you really need this specific combination of small/artsy enough/yet still computer.

Still not there for art, sadly. For example their pen has only half of the pressure sensitivity SPs better pens have :(

But who needs 6 years of transition?

I'm hoping someone manages to make surface pro's fully compatible with linux in that time... (or that something that's compatible and serves SPs purpose becomes available)

I'm trying my best :(

That's what I feared, oh well. Win10 it is for me then...