For a long time I've wanted a Linux Tablet. Something that got me away from Android and Apple tablets, but still reasonably secure. Recently I was given a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet, and the I was lucky enough to acquire another. That meant I could play around with an idea I had wondered about for some time. Originally the plan was to simply replace Windows. But that would lose a few advantages Windows can actually have running the Surface, including losing access to the camera and sacrificing battery life etc.
The Surface tablets have a microSD slot. Because Raspberry Pi runs quite successfully from a MicroSD card only, I hoped a Surface Pro could be booted from one as well.
A little searching suggested they are not designed in such a way the they can run like that. So I started experimenting with booting from a flash drive in the USB port.
... To be continued ...
A couple of suggestions from my friends at Bargaintech: https://www.ebay.com.au/usr/bargain.tech?_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l2559 who successfully put L:inux on a number of their rescued New and Near new Laptops brought me back to the idea of trying Mint Cinnamon on the Surface Pro 3.
I tried booting both Kubuntu and Cinnamon from a live Fashdrive (used these days to install Linux on a computer) and it worked.
The next thing was to install Linux, Kubuntu on one Surface and Cinnamon on the other. But which would go on what? And what about my licenced Windows 10 on the 4/64GB Surface, and Windows 11 Pro on the 256GB device?
I thought about it for a while and decided I could live boot whichever version of Linux I wanted at any time on the device I wanted to use on the day.
That of course meant that each time I booted into a Live USB drive I had to set up locality (Location, Time and Date etc.) and any Theming I changed. Also I could not install Apps, which meant no VPN, one of the reasons I wanted the tablet in the first place.
Enter the idea of a Persistent Live Bootable Flash Drive.
I had heard of this idea, but never needed it. So into the Net I dived and came out wet and happy. There are a few ways to skin this particular cat, bnt I chose to use something called 'mkusb'.
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I booted each OS in turn on separate machines, made enough changes to each, installed some Apps, created a couple of documents on both saved to the Flash Drives and to the Documents folders of the Windows installations on both Surface Pros, then shut them down.
I swapped the Flash drives and booted the tablets again. All the changes I made were kept and the documents were all spot on as well. I did the same again on both. Just made enough changes that I would klnow they had been changed, and tested saving documents to all logical places.
As a last test I booted both tablets into their Windows again, then repeated it all over using the Flash drives.
One last swap and boot and it was proved. The Persistent drives were doing their work. There was no noticeable difference in performance between running the Surface Pro 3 on Windows or Linux, and I still can;t make up my mind if I prefer working in KDE (Kubuntu) which I have always preferred since my Mandrake Linux days around the turn of the Century, or if I can get used to Cinnamon.
Kubuntu running on the Surface Pro 3 in Landscape mode (Swapping to Portrait must be done manually each time in Settings):
Because I prefer working with Kubuntu, I would be prepared to live without using the Surface Pro in Portrait mode. My intention was to use it mostly as a limited Laptop / Notebook most of the time anyway, and I love the way Kubuntu works, and that its floating Keyboard on the screen 'just works'.
I initially installed Kubuntu and Cinnamon onto separate 64GB USB Flashdrives that are so physically small that they are barely noticeable plugged into the USB port. I chose 64GB because, well, that was all I had available at the local Officeworks store.
I wondered if it would work on a flashdrive with more storage. A quick search on the Net suggested the Surface 3 can handle 256GB, and as it happened, Amazon Prime days arrived with the tiny Sandisk drives I am using on special. I ordered 3 for the same price delivered, as I was paying for a single 64GB unit. No prizes for guessing what I did.
I watched the tracking with interest, because they shipped from Japan. And they arrived in only a few days, well before their suggested date. And they were in Japanese Sandisk packaging. Surely a good omen.
Unfortunateky, while Kubuntu and Cinnamon will install on these drives and work perfectly on various computers - they simply refuse to play nicely with the Surface Pro 3.
I will wait until Amazon Prime has the 128GB version of this Sandisk unit on super special, and repeat the test. It will still be cheaper than buying a single drive here.
Once that was sorted, the last hurdle was Battery Life!
Microsoft seem to have worked out the wrinkles in power management of the Surface Pro 3 pretty well, although some of the 'Power remaining' predictions, while they look great when I first saw them, are very optimistic in practice. A '10 hours remaining' quickly turns into '3 hours and 50 minutes remaining' within half an hour or so.
However, even that is better than either Kubuntu or Cinnamon, where '4 hours 30 minutes remaining' becomes '2 hours 40 minutes' after 30 minutes of use.
I installed TLP, but if anything all it does is make the predicted time shorted - but more accurate. All the above is with the screen turned down to 5% brightness, Blue Teeth OFF, and WiFi running. Also they are NOT when watching video. I have a feeling the Surface Pro 'might' make it through a movie if it started at 100% battery charge.
SOMETHING TO NOTE !!!
When shutting the Persistent Live Flashdrive, the usuall prompt will appear onthe screen saying to remove the boot media and press Enter.
Simply pressing ENTER at this prompt has been shutting the Surface Pro 3 with no problems at all so far. It jsut scrolls the message as it goes through what seems to be a 'normal' shurdown.
And there's no risk of losing the Flashdrive - because it stays plugged in, ready for booting again.
Microsoft's own App shows the tablets have 94% and 98% Battery Health, which is probably not too bad for their age - and of course I have no idea exactly when they were originally sold nor how they were used.
Overall, my first month with the Surface Pro 3 tablets has been an interesting one, and one where I have learned quite a bit more about Linux, as well as experienced Windows 10 and Windows 11, and learned again why it was so important to move to Linux back in the 1990s. I've never, ever seen so many suspected malware threat warnings as I have in this last month, whever Windows and I are no the Internet.
I'm still looking for a decent Free Anti-Virus program to replace the one I am testing out now.
-- to be continued --
