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#1 2022-07-19 19:47:50

thephatmaster
Member
Registered: 2021-08-27
Posts: 18

Best DE / compositor for touch on Surface Go v1

Hi there,

I have a Gen1 surface go on the way which I intend to dual boot.

Advice on r/surfacelinux is to use Debian + gnome 40 + wayland.

I'm certainly wayland curious, as waydroid sounds very useful.

I am however aware of the device's hardware limtations. i know its not 2015 anymore but arch + i3 gaps has served me well on all other computers. However I only see one guide about touch in i3, and that was for a different surface device.

Any advice, especially from SGO users, would be appreciated.

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#2 2022-07-20 14:39:16

twelveeighty
Member
From: Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2011-09-04
Posts: 1,096

Re: Best DE / compositor for touch on Surface Go v1

Recommendation threads inevitably end up in TNG. The "advice" is always the same: try them and make up your own mind. There is no undisputed, generally accepted, "best" DE. Unless that is i3, of course.

Last edited by twelveeighty (2022-07-20 14:40:22)

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#3 2022-07-20 14:45:58

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: Best DE / compositor for touch on Surface Go v1

And, aside from disk space, nothing prevents you from installing both at the same time.  You can even use them both at the same time on different consoles.


Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

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#4 2022-07-20 15:38:10

lugge
Member
Registered: 2017-03-17
Posts: 33

Re: Best DE / compositor for touch on Surface Go v1

As twelveeighty said, software recommendations is very difficult.
However, as an owner of a Surface Go3 (from which I write these lines), I have some experience.

Basically, from my own experience and a lot of research, I can confirm that Gnome+Wayland (i used Arch as base) works best with touch screens. Most, if not all, widgets in the programs I used work as expected.
However, you will have a lot of tinkering, making of a standard Gnome installation a surface (pun intended) appropriate for such small devices. You will scale your UI to 175% or higher.
I ended up with lots of extensions and own scripts (for example, for activating/deactivating on-screen-keyboard when hardware keyboard is not attached.
As far as I can say, in Linux there is no out-of-the-box solution for touch devices with small monitor.

I now switched to Plasma/Wayland because I like Plasma more (and a pacman -Syu broke all my Gnome extensions).
You also need much tinkering, but at least no extensions.
Touch experience is not as good as in Gnome.
For example, in Plasma, I cannot scroll pdfs using touch screen gestures (like you would scroll on Android devices) but have to use the scrollbar at the edge of the window. In Gnome, this was working.
Also, some widgets in Firefox are not touchable. For example, its not possible to touchclick the NoScript-buttons. I have to use the keyboards touchpad for this.
I really hope Plasma will be better here when there's more wayland support.

At it stands now, the device is not usable completely without keyboard, regardless of the FOS-software you use.
Sure, browsing websites is OK in tabled mode.
But sooner or later, there will be cases where you are stuck without the keyboard.
Linux DEs really have to get better here. Hey, it's been ten years or something since Ubuntu tried (and failed) with Unity.
However, I love this device.!

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#5 2022-07-20 16:18:35

thephatmaster
Member
Registered: 2021-08-27
Posts: 18

Re: Best DE / compositor for touch on Surface Go v1

twelveeighty wrote:

Recommendation threads inevitably end up in TNG...

Totally agree. X, Y problem. What I should have said was I was looking for experinces

ewaller wrote:

And, aside from disk space, nothing prevents you from installing both at the same time.  You can even use them both at the same time on different consoles.

I'll need to do some reading of console-fu to see how that would work practically.

Disk space is an issue, all my machines have at least 256GB devoted to a scratch SSD for video editing. The Go will be dual boot (damn you meshmixer) and has a 128GB ssd soldered to the mobo + a slow SD card for expansion, so I'll be counting every MB

lugge wrote:

... as an owner of a Surface Go3 (from which I write these lines), I have some experience...

...However, I love this device.!

Fantastic to hear from a user (and lover) of a similar device.

Maybe the r/surfacelinux way (Debian + wayland + gnome) is the safest, no Syu to mess things up. Although I'm sure there will be some update or another that does that

I must say I share your entheusiasm for that line of devices, because the 7" "laptops" are really too small to work on, I feel a surface go is the lightest (in weight and spec) machine one could get away with using for real work.

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