If you want good Linux support avoid the Surface at all costs. Holy shit is it a pain to deal with. Yeah there’s Linux Surface, but do you really want to go through that trouble just to get it mostly fully functional?
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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This is more of a desktop environment thing than a distro-specific thing. If I recall correctly, both KDE Plasma and GNOME both have touchscreen support. Pretty much every, single distro offers one, the other, or both. So I'd just look for one who's marketing to your usecase and try it out.
Super helpful, thanks!
I prefer gnome with dash to panel, just think it by default is more suited for touch screens, use it on my handheld with touch.
Just one of many extensions, and I use the tweak/tuning apps, gnome is a hassle or fun to set up depending on what kind of person you are. KDE you just hop in and customize so it is easier to setup.
I've used Plasma via Fedora Kinoite and it works great. Flipping the 2in1 screen over disables the keyboard automatically and the touchscreen just works fine. Recently Plasma made nice changes to their on screen keyboard. Also, pressure sensitive pens worked perfectly as long as the note taking program utilized that function.
Awesome, thanks for the info. what device have you been using?
It's a Dell Inspiron 2 in 1. Quite nice actually. All metal, fingerprint reader works, 16:10, and other small things that add up to it being overall an enjoyable laptop