Hello everyone!

I’m finally tired enough of the invasive and anti-consumer practices of Windows to convert over. I’m going to start with my laptop, but I’m concerned about compatibility for 2-in-1 convertible touchscreens.

A distro that’s sufficient for both computers would be ideal for consistency’s and simplicity’s sake.

  • 2-in-1 convertible touchscreen laptop. Can be folded into a “tablet” mode. Used for web browsing and simple games
  • Main workstation for gaming, programming, etc. NVIDIA GPU (no touchscreen)

Most anecdotes say touchscreen support is hit or miss, and the On Screen Keyboard / Auto-rotate support is an additional challenge. MINT with cinnamon seems to be the best contender at the moment due to its compatibly with most games and the touchscreen support seems to be there.

But, I’d love some fresh perspectives as most sources were ~a year old. Thanks for your time!

  • dylanmorgan
    120·
    10 months ago

    I use Fedora on a gen 7 Carbon X1 thinkpad and the small amount I use the touch screen has worked fine.

    • Jakeroxs
      30·
      10 months ago10 months ago

      I also use Fedora Wayland but on a HP Spectre X360 from like 2013 or something, touch screen works fine and overall runs a lot better then win 10 was prior.

  • Possibly linuxEnglish
    80·
    10 months ago

    Anything with Wayland will have good touchscreen support

  • KrapKake
    70·
    10 months ago

    A distro with the Gnome desktop is where I would start. It has the best touch gestures and on screen keyboard. Gnome’s keyboard still could use some work however, and I would recommend you install “improved osk” if you intend to use it a lot. Cinnamon will work fine but it’s not as fancy…at least since I have last used it. (Its been a few years.)

    I used to have some 2 in 1 HP x360 that I initially had Linux Mint on and it did work well. But then I tried PopOS out on it and I had to switch it over to that because of the touch screen gestures and an on screen keyboard that would automatically pop up when you activated a text field. I wouldn’t recommend PopOS right now if you want the latest and greatest Gnome updates, as it is a bit out of date since they are focusing on creating their own desktop. It’s still a solid choice though.

  • 0x2d
    50·
    10 months ago10 months ago

    i have arch linux running on a surface pro 6

    laptop specs: core i5, 8 gb ram, 256 gb ssd

    linux setup:

    • arch btw
    • linux-surface kernel
    • gnome (Wayland)

    the touchscreen is working very smoothly

  • joyjoyEnglish
    30·
    10 months ago

    Using an xps17 2019. The touch screen works ok, but it stops working after closing the lid. Using EndeavourOS with Wayland btw.

  • Lettuce eat lettuce
    30·
    10 months ago

    I’ve owned a Thinkpad A485 with touchscreen for years and had several Linux distros on it including Manjaro and Linux Mint which I am currently using.

    Never had any issues, touchscreen always works out of the box without me having to do anything extra. In fact, with a few distros, I’ve had issues with certain wireless mice, but my touchscreen always has worked. So I’ve actually had slightly better luck with the laptop touchscreen than some external mice lol.

    Now a qualifier: I rarely use the touchscreen, and when I do, it’s always just to click something or scroll on an article or file list. I don’t do any special gestures or fancy touch functions, so I can’t speak to support from that perspective.

  • Morgoth_Bauglir
    20·
    10 months ago

    I actually just went through this exact situation in the last month and I switched to LMDE6 on my 2-in-1 lenovo touch screen. Auto rotation didn’t work right out the gate, but iio-sensor-proxy fixed that. In general, I’ve noticed that the touchscreen default setting for some apps (eg, firefox) treats touches as a mouse click, so rather than scrolling it would select text. But I’ve found this AskUbuntu fix worked for me. Been a good experience since then.

  • yojimbo
    20·
    10 months ago

    A colleague wanted to throw out Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3, 10IGL5 (a tablet pc with IMO cool keyboard that can be disconnected and used over bluetooth, 4 core intel CPU taking like 5W & 8GB of ram). Originally bought for his kid but it is absolutely useless under windows. I’ve tested it with current Ubuntu with somewhat meh results (BT keyboard won’t work, no chance to get the automatic screen rotation going, screwy on screen keyboard) then I have installed Fedora and the thing is absolutely amazing. Everything works out of the box, I haven’t done anything “smart” at all and honestly as a XFCE (still deep in x11) user I am amazed how well the Wayland is doing on this. I would dare to say better out of the box experience than Apple - everything is similarly polished but you don’t have to register / pay anything. Now my teamleader is taking it to presentations. He connects the display over USB-C adapter to the projector, walks over the room and controls it with the BT keyboard - Mac wielding accounts are starting to cry. As docker/podman is native he continues to spin up the whole app in a container - at which point every technical person in the room needs to know what the f is that thing?! They are no longer being manufactured though, newer version does not have that cool keyboard…

  • GreyFalcon
    20·
    10 months ago

    manjaro running on an old yoga 12. no problems. it’s the old ladies, so i would have heard.

  • ThurstylarkEnglish
    10·
    10 months ago

    This has less to do with distro, and more to do with Desktop Environment choice. Anything on Wayland is great with touchscreens. I’m on Plasma, and it’s pretty fantastic.

  • Secret300
    10·
    9 months ago

    I don’t have one but my cousin has one and I tried to use it back in fedora 35-36 I think. Not a good experience. Maybe it’s better now

  • joyjoyEnglish
    10·
    10 months ago

    deleted by creator

  • j4k3English
    10·
    10 months ago10 months ago

    deleted by creator