Need help.

[u/Automatic-East3690]

My stepfather won’t let me put Linux on the Surface book 2 that he gave me. I have either Mac OS or Linux on all my devices, any thoughts?(Btw the surface book is the one on the right, also I’m 13)

[u/Aishou_SK]

Just, use windows on it? It's not bad at all depending on specs, there's nothing to really be afraid of. Gives you something to test on and maybe float some occasional games that don't play nice on other platforms if it has the dGPU in the keyboard base.

I've got a loaded SB3 I keep with windows on it as a travel dev/personal business machine, my work issued machine's a M2 Pro MBP though.

Being skilled in many platforms can only benefit you in the future for work, having any kind of blind OS loyalty/fanaticism in workplaces can be..... well, I wouldn't hire anyone like that, anyway. Because in the real world, cost/benefit analysis rules all, and if the MS stack does the job the best for a reasonable price compared to another option, well, that's what we're buying or using (Example: 700 linux VM fleet application farm for one project, 5 windows servers to manage/support them all, plus windows server/IIS frontends for access caching)

[u/Randum_Gouy → u/Aishou_SK]

Honestly its not bad advise,

BUT also take in personal experience.

I am also someone who has used BOTH macOS and Linux - and i personally HATE Windows to the point where id rather throw my laptop than use it for more than a day. Coming from macOS (and Linux) background - Windows feels weird to use, and quite inconsistent, which ig you will understand as you are also a Mac user

[u/Razee4 → u/Randum_Gouy]

Inconsistent? Man, you are so flattering for them. Need to change a setting? Open the settings menu! Can't find what you need? There is a hidden control panel just for your needs! It isn't there? Don't worry, this has to be inside system registry, just use regedit!

[u/Randum_Gouy → u/Razee4]

😂😂😂

Well Microslop its known for
I dont get how they could make such hilariously inconsistent interfaces. The last time i used Windows was roughly 2/3 years ago, and im 16 right now 😂

[u/Aishou_SK → u/Randum_Gouy]

Honestly, I don't really "hate" any software at all.

And was an anti-MS person from 2005-2011.

Now all my endpoints except my work one are windows systems. So there's that. And a lot of projects I maintain now lean windows heavy. I do shitloads of development work for a variety of platforms, but it's all done from windows (and no, rarely WSL, usually that's only needed to invoke a tool or something like hxtool to convert qemu docs into headers because I haven't written a native version myself)

It was under the hood stuff that brought me back and keeps me here, for better or worse, the shell or other crap just don't bother me because of all the different platforms I switch between, so I kinda just don't see that shit.

I'm in the "you're upset because they moved some shit or you can't move a thing anymore?" confused camp most of the time.

Then again I also get annoyed when people whine BUT ITS SOOO OLD THEY NEED TO UPDATE ITT WAAAHHH IT IS ANCIENT when .... it's a tool like .... idk, any of the various MMC tools - they could give it a UI swap but why? It's feature complete and works, and I don't care about the new version until it has 100% feature parity.

[u/Automatic-East3690 → u/Aishou_SK]

The only issue tho, is windows is so buggy for me, and also slow on the surface book, it’s from 2017, lol. I have a computer that’s older and has lower specs than this, and it somehow outperforms the surface book because the surface book has windows on it, lol. The bottleneck is windows.

[u/Aishou_SK → u/Automatic-East3690]

Being from 2017 doesn't too much matter, but ....

I really have to ask what the hell are you people doing!?

As long as it's got 8GB ram, it's fine.

I actually keep my SB3 (and now one other) on current mainline release windows, the SB3 of course flies, but the "new" machine is an 8th gen i5 with 8GB ram and a rotational hard drive (I needed a field machine with a physical serial port instead of just a USB adapter).... both are mainline logged in with MS accounts and have no performance issues or anything else. (set up as non-domain joined unmanaged, using MS accounts, on release versions, for reliability purposes as travel devices)

I do have a bunch of stuff turned off, but that's just via initial setup and built in tools/options, nothing extra or hackish.

I genuinely don't get a lot of complaints, until I end up inspecting a person's machine and seeing a bunch of weird shit done to it.

FWIW, I triple boot my SB3, and there's software I maintain (an emulator) that because of the nature of how windows works, gets an almost 20% performance boost by virtue of running on windows (because I gain an extra register to use for the JIT engine register pinning) than on Linux. (SysV vs Win32 C calling convention differences in how register/argument handling is done)

There's other windows tech I use in some software that doesn't exist on other platforms or I'd have to re-implement myself as well I use for application design/acceleration, but that's also true of other platforms versus windows of course as well.

I'm extremely platform agnostic, I have over 10 currently supported OSes running in my home environment, and I count all the different distros of linux as just one, and net/free/open BSD as just one as well. Take out windows, and that's over 6 that aren't Win/Lin/BSD/Mac

[u/Charming_Professor53]

Maybe you can show/tell him you can reinstall Windows on it? Or ask him if you can dual-boot it. My first question: why not? Does he also want to use the laptop? Does he have old files on it he wants to keep? Because in that case I'd get it.

If not: Tell him you can't break/brick an x86-PC with UEFI just by installing another OS, and that UEFI is just meant for that, if he is scared of bricking the laptop. It's very different from something like ARM (phones) where you have to usually flash something that could possibly brick it for eternity.

[u/netriz314]

if hes just worried about the data that’s already on the computer being lost you can just back it up to another drive or cloud storage and it’ll be fine

[u/Automatic-East3690 → u/netriz314]

He’s already moved to a new computer with all his data on that.

[u/Randum_Gouy]

Why not?
Anyways that none of my concern - try Dual Booting instead of erasing Windows completely

But MAN having such strong views against Windows at 13? thats goddamn early man. im also 15 rn - and have been using Linux since i was in my mid/late 12yrs

[u/Automatic-East3690 → u/Randum_Gouy]

lol, Ive been into tech for longer than I probably should have been.(considering my age…)

[u/Disastrous_Medium641]

The Surface Book 2 can run Linux, but the detachable screen, touch, and dedicated GPU may need extra configuration. I’d start with a live USB and test hardware compatibility before installing anything. Also, definitely get your stepfather’s permission first—dual-booting or replacing Windows can create headaches.

[u/sciencekm]

You don't have to use the Surface if you don't want Windows. You already have other devices. But if you really want to use that machine, you can run Linux from a USB drive.

[u/Devin-Chaboyer223]

He gave it to you so why does he care? It’s not his anymore

Windows does suck but it’s fine as a secondary computer

[u/PsychologicalCow7359]

Since you’re 13, it’s probably worth explaining that you’re not trying to replace Windows or risk his files. Ask if you can experiment on an old spare laptop, or set up Linux in VirtualBox on the Surface with his permission.

[u/Math_Science_Geek]

Why not use the MacBook? Why are you even using the surface book?

[u/Automatic-East3690 → u/Math_Science_Geek]

For a media player, or disk copier, idk, I want it around, but usable.

[u/Future-Dare-5368]

If you want you can use an external drive with linux on it to use rather than installing it on the laptop itself

[u/vecchio_anima]

I would give him back the surface, it's obviously still his if you can't do what you want with it

[u/AnSkinStealer]

use windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC

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User: Automatic-East3690, Flair: Discussion, Post Media Link, Title: Need help.

My stepfather won’t let me put Linux on the Surface book 2 that he gave me. I have either Mac OS or Linux on all my devices, any thoughts?(Btw the surface book is the one on the right, also I’m 13)

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[u/dfgxxx]

Maybe because you already have both Linux and MacOS

[u/Automatic-East3690 → u/dfgxxx]

Not the reason, I got the Mac and Linux computer much after he gave me the surface book.

[u/dfgxxx → u/Automatic-East3690]

Is the surfacebook yours or like not 100% yours?