Note: This is a first-person, creative review story. It uses real tools and real steps I’d take on a Debian tablet so it reads like day-to-day use.
Why I tried this, and what I used
I wanted a small, quiet device I could toss in my bag. No fan noise. Real Linux. So I set up Debian 12 (Bookworm) on a Microsoft Surface Go 2. It’s a tiny Windows tablet, but it runs x86, so Debian plays nice. I also spent a weekend with a friend’s PineTab 2 running a Debian flavor (Mobian). If you want to dive deeper into Mobian, the project's how-to guide is a great starting point. That one felt slower, but very pure.
Two tablets. Same idea: touch first, real packages, no fuss from app stores. Did it beat an iPad? No. But did it make me grin while I tweaked and wrote notes at a cafe? Oh yes.
If you’d like to see how other lightweight devices handle open-source operating systems, take a look at Desktop Linux Reviews.
For the full narrative of how I fine-tuned the Surface Go 2 and squeezed the most out of Debian, you can check the step-by-step breakdown I published on Desktop Linux Reviews.
Setup: quick and a bit nerdy, but not scary
I flashed a USB-C stick and did a plain Debian install with GNOME on Wayland. Touch worked right away. Later I skimmed Debian's Tablet and Touchscreen wiki for extra gestures and calibration tricks. So did Wi-Fi and sound. The pen paired too.
On the Surface Go 2, I added the linux-surface kernel. That made the touchscreen feel smoother, fixed the battery gauge, and helped the cameras. On the PineTab 2, I used the image with Phosh. It booted fast from microSD, which is handy when you’re scared to mess up the main drive.
Little tweaks that helped:
- GNOME on-screen keyboard: pops up when I tap a text field. Works fine in most apps.
- Rotation: I pinned a quick toggle in the top bar, since auto-rotate got stuck after sleep.
- Flatpak: I turned it on for apps like Spotify and Obsidian. Simple, and it filled the gaps.
Speaking of sourcing affordable hardware, I actually snagged my Surface Go 2 second-hand from a local seller. If you’re in or around Lake Forest and hunting for a gently used tablet, a spare stylus, or even a discounted USB-C dock, the Backpage-style classifieds at One Night Affair’s Lake Forest listings offer a constantly updated bulletin board where you can scoop up gear for a fraction of retail prices.
What I actually did on it
This wasn’t a showroom test. I took it out. I worked on it. I made it sweat a bit.
- Morning email in Geary, then a couple docs in LibreOffice Writer. Trackpad off, fingers only.
- Notes in Xournal++ with a Surface Pen. I marked up a PDF from school and saved it to Nextcloud.
- Read a book in Foliate on the couch. Dark mode. Tea on the side. Vibes were calm.
- Web stuff in Firefox ESR: Google Docs, Notion (yes, the web app), and a small Jupyter notebook on localhost.
- Music in Spotify (Flatpak). Bluetooth earbuds paired in Blueman with no drama.
- A video call from the kitchen. The front camera worked with the linux-surface kernel. Frame rate was okay, not great.
- If you want an easy way to push your webcam further—whether to test image quality on Debian or just hop into a quick peer-to-peer chat—give InstantChat’s browser-based cam-to-cam service a spin; it spins up an encrypted room in seconds and requires zero additional software, making it handy on lightweight Linux tablets.
On the PineTab 2, I kept it lighter: ebooks, terminal, MPV for videos, and Toot for Mastodon. Phosh feels phone-like, which is cute, but you do need patience.
When it felt great
- Typing on the screen didn’t make me mad. GNOME’s keyboard is clean and stable.
- Browsing was smooth. Touch gestures for the overview felt natural.
- Xournal++ with a pen was the star. Low lag, quick eraser, easy lasso. I marked 17 pages of a math PDF on a train ride.
- Battery life on the Surface Go 2 with Debian landed around 6–7 hours of “real” use. That’s Slack in the browser, music, and writing. The tablet stayed warm, not hot.
- Speakers were louder than I fear on small machines. Podcasts sounded fine while I cooked.
When it made me sigh
- Sleep was hit or miss. Twice it woke up and rotated the screen sideways. Funny once, not twice.
- Cameras on Linux are… touchy. With the linux-surface bits, Cheese worked, but some web apps didn’t see the camera the first try.
- Some apps ignore the on-screen keyboard. A few old X11 windows just won’t call it up. I had to tap the keyboard icon by hand.
- On the PineTab 2, everything works, but slow. Think “patient Sunday” slow. I could read and write, but big web pages felt heavy.
- Netflix? It ran in Firefox after Widevine setup, but full HD dropped frames. Good for shows, not action scenes.
If you’d rather dodge proprietary streaming quirks altogether, my experiment setting up a home Jellyfin server on Kali Linux—complete with the bumps along the way—is documented right here.
My small bag of fixes
These are the simple things that made it feel like a real tablet at work.
- Power: I used power-profiles-daemon on Balanced. Dim at 30 seconds. Suspend at 10 minutes.
- Touch targets: In GNOME Tweaks, I bumped the scaling a notch. Big buttons, less mis-taps.
- Fonts: Noto Sans. Crisp at arm’s length.
- App picks:
- Geary, Firefox ESR, LibreOffice
- Xournal++, Foliate, Obsidian (Flatpak)
- MPV, VLC, Spotify (Flatpak)
- VS Codium (Flatpak) for quick edits
- Backup: Timeshift with RSYNC to a microSD card. Saved my bacon after a bad theme tweak.
The PineTab 2 side note
It’s fun. Quiet. Real Debian flavors. The keyboard case is cute and light. But it’s for folks who like to tinker and don’t mind a beat behind. Phosh is touch-first, yet some apps still feel like “tiny desktop windows.” Reading, terminal, light notes? Lovely. Heavy web apps? Bring patience.
Work test: a full day with no laptop
I tried a full workday on the Surface Go 2 with Debian. Coffee shop Wi-Fi. One charger in my bag, just in case.
- 9:00–11:30: Docs, email, one short Zoom in the browser. No crashes.
- Lunch on YouTube. 720p was fine. 1080p was okay, but I saw a few stutters.
- 1:00–3:30: Notes in Xournal++, a git push from the terminal, and a small Python script. Touch plus pen the whole time.
- Battery check at 3:30: 22% left. I plugged in and kept going.
Could it replace my main laptop? Not for big design or dev builds. But for writing, calls, and reading, I didn’t miss much.
Who should try this
- Students who want cheap, quiet, and open. You’ll learn a lot, and it’s good for class PDFs.
- Writers and note-takers who like pen input and easy file control.
- Tinkerers who smile when something works after a tweak and a reboot.
- Not for folks who need “it just works” all the time. Also not for folks who want heavy video editing or big games.
And if you’re still weighing which mainstream desktop distro to lean on for your next project, my first-person head-to-head of Fedora vs Ubuntu vs Linux Mint lays out the practical pros and cons.
Final take
I like this setup. It’s real Linux, in a small tablet body, and it makes simple work feel light. It’s not perfect. Some days it’s moody. But when I’m reading, writing, or sketching notes with a pen, it feels like the right tool at the right time.
Would I keep it? Yes. As my couch device, my class helper, and my travel buddy. When I need raw power, I grab my bigger laptop. When I want calm, I reach for the Debian tablet and breathe a little. You know what? That balance is enough for me.